512 
AMEKICAA AGRICULTURIST. 
[NOVEMBER, 
A Remodelled Barn. 
FIRST PRIZE BY A. A. WOOD. 
Figure 1 shows an old New England barn, which 
furnished a fair amount of shelter to a few head 
of live stock. It was inconvenient for winter 
work, and had no provision for the economical 
saving of manure. Figures 2 and 3 show the inte¬ 
rior of the old barn. An addition, figures 4 and 5, 
sixteen by sixteen feet, was'erected ; a second floor 
for storage of fodder was put on, and the cattle 
stable transferred from the cellar to the ground 
floor. With these changes the barn accommodates 
Fig. 1. — THE OLD BARN. 
more stock, with ample storage room, light, and 
ventilation. The exterior of the remodelled bam 
is shown in figure 7, and the interior in figures 8 
and 9. The cellar (figure 6) is arranged for storing 
roots, which are put in through a shuto near the 
end door; it also contains a silo (filled from the feed¬ 
ing floor), manure pits, and a wagon shed. The 
old barn was not wide enough, and an addition 
along one side secures two rows of cattle stalls, if 
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Fig. 2. — HAY FLOOR OF OLD BARN. 
desired. The frame of the old barn was sound, 
and required no important changes. The materials 
used in the main building are as follows: 
4,400 feet matched Siding, @ $25 M.$110.00 
1,000 feet Chestnut Flank for floor, @ $25 M. 47.50 
1,900 feet Spruce Flooring, @ $22 $ M. 41.80 
24,000 Shingles, @ $3.50 18 M. 84.00 
600 feet Spruce Plank for stalls, <a $20 M. .. 12.00 
1,000 feet, 2x6, Spruce Joist, @ $16 $1 M. 16.00 
250 feet, 3x4, Spruce Stall Posts. @ $16 $ M. 4.00 
2 large Doors.25.00 
Cupola Ventilator. 20.00 
Stone Work in Silo. 50.00 
1 1 1 
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. 
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§ 
Fig. 3.— BASEMENT OF OLD BARN. 
MATERIAL IN THE ADDITIONS. 
600 feet Siding. 15.00 
168 feet, 4x6. Bottom Sills and Posts. 2.69 
684 feet. 2x6, Studs, Rafters, etc. 10.94 
256 feet Spruce Flooring. 5.63 
500 feet Spruce Plank for horse stable. 12.50 
3,500 Shingles. 12.25 
Total.$469.31 
The skilled labor necessary to remodel tlie bam 
should not cost over one hundred dollars. To this 
add twenty-five dollars for hardware, and fifty-five 
dollars and sixty-nine cents for items, as glass, etc., 
not above mentioned, and we have the grand total 
of six hundred and fifty dollars for the cost of re¬ 
construction. This estimate of expenses cau only 
be general, and is mainly intended to show that 
the changes are important ones, easily made, and 
within reach of many farmers having poor barns. 
The Mechanical Efforts of Roots. 
People who are not in the habit of observing 
closely, fail to understand the forces exerted by 
plants in their develop¬ 
ment, and more especially 
is this true of the phenom¬ 
ena eonuected with the 
growth of roots. There are 
so many obstacles to their 
study that a great deal yet 
remains to be learned, but 
we can easily see that one 
of the most remarkable 
features of roots is the 
power exerted in their 
growth and development. 
The above ground por¬ 
tion of the plant begins its 
existence amidst the most 
auspicious surroundings, with nothing to resist the 
expansion of its leaves or the growth of its twigs. 
But the roots from the very outset are enveloped in 
a deuse solid material that would apparently stop 
the progress of even much stronger forces; their 
tips are composed of the most delicate tissue to be 
found in any part of the plant, and their whole 
structure is soft and yielding. At first the roots 
are the merest threads, twisting and turning among 
the particles of soil, but as soon as they are once 
established, the increase in thickness begins, the 
tissues harden, and obstacles are slowly but surely 
pushed to one side. The process is the same in all 
plants alike, from the coarsest to the most delicate, 
but often the smaller plants give apparently 
the strangest examples. A clover plant on the 
banks of the Connecticut River sent its roots 
perpendicularly downward eight feet in search of 
water. Indian corn spreads a perfect network of 
roots through the soil for a distance of from three 
to six feet in all directions, and downward to a 
permanent water supply. Some curious facts have 
been developed in the growth of roots. Quantities 
of plant food were placed at some distance away,and 
as soon as a siugle ‘ ‘scout” from the plant had made 
its way thither, all subsequent root development 
strongly tended in that direction. Roots of 
trees and other plants, after having penetrated the 
soil for long distances in search of water, often 
choke up drains and wells by their excessive growth 
in that direction. Inasmuch as a vigorous condi¬ 
tion of tlie plant, and especially its ability to with¬ 
stand drouth, depends upon its root development, 
it is evident that the best disposition of fertilizers 
is that which will induce a growth of roots in 
all directions, and this means sowing the fer¬ 
tilizers broadcast. 
The amount of root area which a plant occupies 
is often surprising. There is a general idea that it 
equals the extension of the plant in the air, but 
really it often exceeds this. A squash vine, under 
investigation at the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, in 1874, produced a total of fifteen miles 
of roots, and in its period of most active growth 
it increased about one thousand feet per day. 
The true mechanical efforts of roots are exerted 
in their struggle for progress through the soil, and 
examples for illustration are many. To under¬ 
stand the magnitude of their work, we must bear in 
mind that each root displaces an amount of soil 
equal to its own bulk. Take for instance a crop of 
mangel wurzels, and imagine what an upheaval 
must have been produced in the soil by the growth 
of its enormous mass. The whole-surface of the 
field is raised and its particles loosened. 
In practical questions of the farm, this power is 
of value. Those who give turnips and mangels a 
place in their system of rotation, do so ostensibly 
for their feeding value, but beyond this their 
mechanical effect is also of much importance. 
The most striking results of the mechanical 
power of roots are seen when they come in con- 
Fig. 4.— END VIEW OF WING. 
tact with the most resisting obstacles. They have 
been unearthed from compact gravelly soil, where 
the struggle for room had been so fierce that 
they became distorted out of all natural shape. It 
is not unusual to find trees growing in the clefts of 
Fig. 5.—CROSS-SECTION OF WING. 
ledges, showing unmistakably that the expansion of 
the roots has forced the rock apart. A ease is cited, 
on good authority, of a root of the sugar maple 
that had pushed its way under a rock weighing 
nearly two tons, and by its enlargement lifted it en¬ 
tirely from its bed. Trees have been observed 
growing on the bare rock, resting upon their roots 
which ran out into the soil on either side, and yet 
Fig. 6.—PLAN OF CELLAR. 
these roots, supporting the enormous weight of 
the tree, formed each year new growth on their 
underside, and lifted the tree by the space of its 
thickness until seven inches of wood had been 
formed under the severe pressure. 
Many people will be able to recall similar in- 
