Vol. LVI. No. 2468. 
NEW YORK, MAY 15, 1897. 
$1.00 PER YEAR 
A CHEAP WAGON SHED. 
BUILT OUT OF BOX BOARDS. 
Keep Tools Under Shelter. 
One is continually advised in agricultural papers 
(and rightly so) to keep implements and tools in the 
dry. Some even claim that a straw shed is better 
than no shelter. As occasion demanded, I have added 
shed after shed, until the roadway leading to my barn 
had several on each side, and a city friend suggested 
that I call it Midway Plaisance. The purchase of 
some vehicles the past summer necessitated more shed 
room, and I determined that, this time, it should not 
be an eyesore, but a substantial, painted building. 
The average farmer is not, at present, over-supplied 
with money, and I found, on inquiry, that such a shed 
as I wanted to build—16 by 30 feet—would cost in the 
neighborhood of $50 for materials alone. Happening 
through the streets one day, I noticed a large dry- 
goods box with a sign posted— 
Boxes for Sale, Cheap! 
The owner being crowded for room, offered the lot, 
about 50, for $3. The next morn¬ 
ing, the hired man and myself 
arrived with sharp saws, reduced 
these boxes to lumber by sawing 
around each box 1)4 inch from 
the ends. The sides of the boxes 
were mostly of inch dressed, 
tongued and grooved pine, quite 
free from knots. The ends were 
of one inch stuff. By evening, 
we had them all piled snug and 
straight in a large wagon bed, 
such as we haul manure in. At 
a saw mill, I now purchased for 
$150 two-inch culls enough to 
frame the entire shed. The 
dressed %-ineh stuff was lapped 
on the center girder, and the one- 
inch stuff was used in the rafters 
under tar paper. Instead of tar 
paper, however, I used the heav¬ 
iest resin-sized sheathing paper ; 
the tar penetrates it thoroughly. 
The tar is put on boiling hot, and 
the third coat graveled. We did 
the work ourselves. Fig. 136 
shows shingles on the front side, 
which I happened to have on 
hand. They cost more, take 
longer to lay, are hard to paint, 
and should I build again, I would 
use tar roof only. In this expense account, no account 
is taken of small nails, as we had more than enough 
out of the boxes. Boxes, $3 ; 2-inch culls, $1.50; 500 
feet resin-sized paper, $1 ; 3 gallons tar, 30 cents ; 2 
gallons boiled linseed oil, 70 cents ; 12 pounds best 
white lead, 70 cents ; spikes and rollers for sliding 
door, $1.70 ; lumber for sliding door, $1.60 ; labor, $9 ; 
total, $19. WALTER WALDIN. 
Iowa. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Waldin is the man who told us how 
he made a pond by building a dam at the foot of a 
ravine v Before the water was “held up”, it ran 
through the farm, simply taking some of the fertility 
away. It was in one sense a waste. Now it is put 
to a good use. Just so with those boxes. Some peo¬ 
ple would have split them up for kindling, and that 
would have been an end of them. Mr. Waldin uses 
them to make a shed, and in this form they will do 
honorable service for years. This is an age for utiliz¬ 
ing wastes. The manufacturers are constantly learn¬ 
ing how* to obtain value out of what was formerly 
throwniaway. L The *.farmer must do the same, and 
utilize water, boxes,'manure, force—everything. 
A SOUTHERN CATTLE BARN. 
ONE BUILDING OR SEVERAL SHEDS? 
Should the Climate Determine the Plans ? 
My farm buildings have been destroyed by fire. I wish to re¬ 
build so as to have the most convenient arrangement for stock 
feeding. Shall I build one large barn to shelter the stock and 
their food, or put the hay and grain in separate buildings ? 
VIRGINIA FARMER. 
A Modern Virginia Stock Barn. 
Under certain conditions, it is necessary to have 
separate houses for hay, stock and grain, but for con¬ 
venience and easy management of stock, a building 
well arranged for these three uses is best suited to 
the requirements of the average Middle South farmer. 
The first cost of farm buildings is a matter, of course, 
to be considered, but, important as it may be, it 
should be secondary to any arrangements that will 
facilitate the work which, for generations, may be 
carried on within it. As the roof is often the most 
expensive part of a barn and, usually, the first to need 
renewing, I would advise the reduction of roof area 
by having the stable on the ground with storage for 
feed above; gravity, then, can be called on to help 
WAGON SHED MADE FROM BOX BOARDS. Fig. 136 
with the work. There is not much need here to build 
against cold, yet it is best to be prepared to close the 
stables against the tempered remnants of the northern 
storms which pay us their respects one to three days 
after giving our friends at the North the lion’s share 
of frost and snow, to which they are heartily welcome. 
We recently built a barn with a stable for cattle, 
keeping in mind four points, cost, strength, capacity 
and convenience. See Fig. 137. The cost was not 
great, and so satisfactory has it been in the three 
latter points, that I think it may be well to give a 
description of it. The stable and barn proper are 150 
feet long by 30 feet wide. The stable, eight feet 
high, has two rows of stalls with cattle facing the 
feeding aisle, which is six feet wide. There are two 
silos at the north end of 400 tons’ capacity, with a 
passage between them the same width as the feeding 
aisle. The dairy room and ice house are north of the 
silos with engine house attached. The boiler house 
is 50 feet off to avoid danger of fire and higher rate of 
insurance. Three doors in each silo, one above the 
other, open into the passage. A car with a box ten 
feet long and one foot deep, and that exactly fits be¬ 
tween the silos, runs the full length of the stable. It 
carries enough ensilage at once for the 88 cattle that 
the stable holds. The wheels are flanged and run on 
oak tracks. The barn above is 30 feet to the apex, 
and is arranged so that there are no cross beams to 
interfere with the operation of unloading hay with 
slings, or to be strained with the weight of hay as it 
settles. Each bent has two purlin posts 10 feet apart 
with braces 20 feet long reaching from sill, near out¬ 
side post, to within four feet of top of purlin post, into 
which it is tenoned and bolted. Braced this way, a 
barn cannot collapse or be blown down. 
Two driveways are entered from the east side where 
the ground is high. At each side of the driveways, 
yet close to them so that the proper filling of mows 
is not prevented, are openings through the floor 
directly over the feeding aisle through which the car 
can be filled with hay, cut corn stalks, etc., and 
quickly carried to any part of the stable. Thirty 
feet of the barn next to the silos is used for meal 
bins, grinder, ensilage and fodder cutter, etc. From 
the stable, a slide can be drawn from the bottom of 
the meal bins, and the desired quantity of meal run 
into the car. The engine is on 
higher ground, and from it a 
belt passes between the silos 
(high enough to be out of the 
way) to a counter shaft, across 
the end of the barn, with pulleys 
to suit the different machines. 
Being able to run all the ma¬ 
chines at once, saves time and 
fuel and enables us to utilize 
wet and stormy days to advan¬ 
tage. The floor of the barn is 
tight, so that odors from the 
stable cannot permeate the feed 
above. A manure shed at the 
south end of the stable saves all 
the manure from leaching and 
deterioration that takes place if 
exposed to rains. 
A proposed addition for horses, 
calves and sheep, and box stalls 
for cows that are about to calve, 
and with feed space above, will 
run at right angles towards the 
west from the north end of the 
present barn. With another car, 
feed can be carried from the same 
silos and meal from the bins. A 
water trough is before each ani¬ 
mal, but we let the cattle out 
nearly every day, believing that 
they are better for a little exercise and an hour’s 
basking in the genial, southern, winter sun. With 
these arrangements, one man can well and easily at¬ 
tend to all the stock this building will accommodate. 
I visited a farm the other day where the buildings, 
though close together, were so unhandy that it re¬ 
quired three men properly to care for an equal num¬ 
ber of stock. The difference in wages, for a few 
years, would build the more convenient barn. This 
plant can be reduced to the size required without 
losing any of its labor-saving features. If the work 
will not warrant the use of an engine, other power 
can be substituted. In many cases, in this part of 
the South, the farms are large or very little stock is 
kept, so that the production of hay, corn, etc., is 
greatly in excess of that consumed at home. To draw 
this to a set of buildings adjoining the stock barn, 
would be incurring unnecessary and unwise risk, as 
lights are oftener used in the stock barn. Then to 
draw all the products to one point would consume 
time that one cannot afford to lose during the haying 
and harvesting periods, so I would suggest that suit¬ 
able buildings be placed convenient to the fields where 
