A BARN OF TERRA COTTA. 
What a Massachusetts Dairyman Did. 
The great objection that is made to many model 
stables is that they are built by institutions or by men 
who have become well-to-do in business other than 
farming, and so, quite naturally, ordinary farmers, 
who depend on their farms for their living, look upon 
such stables as unpractical. The purpose of this 
with cement plastered on metal lath. It has not been 
entirely satisfactory, because the walls dampen 
through in a heavy rain. 
The milk house was hardly begun before we found 
that we would need more stable room. Our old stable 
is in the hay barn, with pit underneath, and there is 
no suitable place for young stock, so we decided to 
build a stable for the cows and. use the old one for the 
young stock. This building also, if built of wood and 
three feet six inches wide and four feet 10 inches 
long from stanchion to gutter. The gutter is 18 inches 
wide and six deep; a passageway four feet wide is 
back of the gutter. There is an open space of 14 feet, 
including mangers, between the stanchions, enough 
so that loads of green feed can be brought in . The 
mangers are two feet six inches wide and live inches 
deep, and are to be used for both feeding and water¬ 
ing. There is a passage two feet eight inches wide 
PART OF A ROW OF COW STALLS. Fig. 125. 
THE'FRONT OF ALL THE BUILDINGS. Fig. 127. 
article is to show that it is possible for farmers to 
have as good buildings as anyone. 
The Elm Shade Dairy Farm contains about 125 
acres, 50 of which are cultivated, the rest being pas¬ 
ture and woodland, and is located in the fertile Con¬ 
necticut Valley, four miles from Springfield, Mass. 
It has been in the same family nearly 200 years, ever 
since the locality was first settled. For several years 
we had been making high grade milk, selling at the 
farm to a peddler. About a year ago we began sup¬ 
plying the Wesson Maternity and Memorial Hospitals 
conveniently located, would be very dangerous in case 
of fire, lying between the hay barn and the horse barn. 
We had visited the Massachusetts Agricultural Col¬ 
lege farm at Amherst, where there is a reinforced 
concrete stable, and they advised us to use terra-cotta 
tile, which they had used for a large hay barn; mean¬ 
while the builder had become interested in the terra¬ 
cotta, and wanted to use it, so we decided to build 
with it, and have. found it entirely satisfactory, so 
far as we can tell at present. The man who put up 
the building i§ one of the pioneer cement users in 
at the south end of the stable, and one six feet wide 
at the north end for bringing in hay, grain and silage 
from the barn. The manure is to be carried out in a 
litter carrier, dumped into a wagon and carted off 
every day. 
The floors are all three inches thick; the stalls and 
passages back of them are one inch above the founda¬ 
tion, while the milk house, main passage and feeding 
floor are seven inches higher and the passage to the 
barn rises about two feet to the level of the barn 
floor. The foundation is 10 inches thick and three 
SOUTHWEST CORNER WITH WALLS NEARLY UP. Fig. 126. 
THE COMPLETED BUILDING. Fig. 128. 
in Springfield and the Baby Feeding Association, 
which furnishes milk, natural or modified, for baby 
use. lo care for the business properly we needed a 
milk house with more tank room than our old one, 
and also facilities for bottling, separating and washing. 
Our buildings are so located that it was impossible to 
build of wood in a convenient location without too 
greatly increasing the fire risk, so decided to use 
cement blocks, as that was the only fireproof material 
with which we were familiar. This building is roofed 
this vicinity, but neither he nor his men had ever 
handled terra-cotta, yet they had very little difficulty 
except that caused by the cold wet weather of the 
late Fall. 
The plan of the buildings can best be understood 
by the drawing, Fig. 131. The outside dimensions of 
the stable are 36x45, giving plenty of room for 20 
stalls, and the arrangement is modeled after the one at 
Amherst. The stalls, of 1^-inch pipe, and the 
stanchions were bought all ready to set up; they are 
feet deep, of cobblestones grouted with cement. The 
walls of the stables are eight inches thick; the sides 
are nine feet high and the ends 11 feet. The tiles are 
laid up much the same as cement blocks, and are 
plastered on both sides. The outside is left slightly 
rough, and the inside is finished with a skim coat 
troweled smooth. There is a strip of reinforced con¬ 
crete eight inches square over the doors and windows, 
which binds the whole building together. Cement 
blocks are used for the window sills and cornice. The 
