198 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Pulling roots, ton days work, at 5s. per day, ... .. 6 
$73 25 
On the one and one-third acres I had 1,303 bushels roots. 
1,303 bushels of roots, at 3s. per bushel. $488 63 
Deduct expenses,... 73 25 
Bethlehem. JVov. 1 Sth, 1837. 
$415 38 
JOHN J. BULLOCK. 
PLAN OF BARN AND OUT BUILDINGS. 
Russia, Herkimer co. Dee. 9th, 1837. 
Mr. J. Biiel, Esq.—Sir,—I hereby send you the plan of a barn for 
grain and cattle adapted to common farmers, for the premium offered in 
the first number of the fourth volume of the Cultivator. 
Explanation. 
The barn ninety feet long by twenty-six to fifty wide; a, great doors 
twelve feet wide; /, floor fourteen feet by thirty-five; b, bay thirty-five 
feet by thirty six; l, alley eight feet by forty; d, slide door from the floor 
to alley; t, t, stables nine feet wide; s, s, sinks three inches in depth; 
e, g, stable doors four feet wide; h, alley door; y, alley six feet by fifty; 
n, n , alley doors five feet wide; m, stable nine feet wide; k, sink three 
inches deep; p, p, stable doors. 
There should be a good stone foundation laid in lime mortar. The 
main body of the barn, including the floor and bay, needs no particular de¬ 
scription; it is thirty-five feet by fifty, and will require four bents, posts 
sixteen feet, on the opposite side of the floor; four bents, sixteen feet 
posts; the first story, six and a half feet in the clear, with a good flooring 
for hay; the upper beam in the end next the floor may be the great beam 
on one side of the floor. There should be in the centre a tie beam from 
plate te plate. The sills or sleepers for the stable floors should be laid 
across the building, each end of the sleepers should be rabbeted three in¬ 
ches in depth, and in length sufficient for the width of the sink. The bot¬ 
tom of the sink should be six inches below the top of the side sill, the sill 
torming one side ofthe sink. This will make the stables nearly seven feet 
high, and preserve the sills; the plank for stable floors three inches thick. 
For fastening cows and oxhn, &c. in the stable, I would use what are call¬ 
ed stanchials, (which are in general use with us,) which are made with 
sill and plate six inches square each, four feet three or four inches apart, 
by framing slats or pieces of plank two inches thick into them. First a 
piece of plank six inches wide, five feet four inches long, then a space of 
six inches, then a slat three inches wide, made fast in the sill, the upper 
end passing through the plate, there being a mortice fourteen inches long 
in the plate, to let the slat fall back, so that the animal’s head may pass 
between the slats; that done, the slat is raised perpendicular, when a 
latch twelve inches long, three inches wide, with a notch or shoulder of 
one and a half inches, falls back of the slat, a projecting part of the latch 
resting on the top of the slats; f the latch is made fast at one end of the 
long mortice with a pin. When you wish to release the animal raise the 
latch. Each cow will require a space of two feet eight or nine inches. 
The sill will form a side boundary of the alley. There should be four 
posts on each side ofthe alley, fiom the beams to the cross sills and sleep¬ 
ers; cattle feed on the floor of the alley. The remainder is a lean to fif¬ 
teen feet wide, posts seven feet, secured to the upright part by girts and 
rafters, the upper end of the rafters resting on the plate of the upright; 
the stable may be used for cattle or horses, or both; if hot used for horses, 
the allev may be seven feet wide if desired. The calculation is to put in 
s 
~ 
s 
k 
a 
s 
s 
f 
b 
s 
hay at each end of the barn from the outside. The stables will hold from 
forty-six to forty-eight cows; the manuie may be thrown out at the doors 
and through the sides of the stables, but should be removed into the field 
so soon as the frost is out in the spring. S one for the sides of the stabling 
would be preferable to wood. The stables can be well ventilated and 
lighted; are very easy of access from the barnffioor or out side. Coming 
on to the barn floor through a small door within one of the great doors by 
walking thirty-five feet, you can know the standing condition of every ani¬ 
mal in the stables. If you cut your straw and hay on the barn floor, or 
feed roots therefrom, they are easily distributed to every part of the sta¬ 
bling. Soon as the hay in the bay is below the plate, it can be thrown 
from the mow into the alley. All the advantages over the floor can be 
had for grain commonly had in barns of this size. 
Wagon house, tool house and horse stable. 
Explanation. 
This building is thirty feet 
by forty; b, stairway to go 
aloft; d, d, great doors 12 
feet wide; a, rack; s, s, s, 
s, s, stalls for horses, one 7 
feet wide, to feed the team 
in the harness; k, sink three 
inches deep; g, granary large 
h as you please; /, door for 
granary; h, h, h, windows; 
the remainder for wagons, 
sleighs, tools, &c. There 
\ should be a stone foundation 
laid in lime and sand; the 
posts sixteen feet; the first 
6 tory nine feet in the clear; 
a substantial ground floor; 
the sides ceiled with matched boards; , the upper floor with matched plank; 
the granary plastered; the out side clapboarded; a loft for hay. Avery 
convenient and comfortable building. 
Respectfully submitted, THOMAS JOHNSON. 
Lake C. H. Ia. Dec. 12th, 1837. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Dear Sir,—I consider your items of matter relating to 
household economy, as the most universally useful part of the paper. 
Thousands who possess the raw materials in abundance, lack “ the art of 
making a good dinner out of small means.” The following simple re¬ 
cipes are valuable, in my family. If you. find room for them, I hope they 
will prove so in many other families. 
Yours truly, SOLON ROBINSON. 
BUTTERMILK BREAD. 
Many of your readers are not aware of the value of buttermilk, in mak¬ 
ing biscuits. Let me tell them how to use it, I am sure they will thank 
me. 
Take a large table spoonful of sal aratus, (not pearl ash,) pulverize or 
dissolve the lumps, and put it into buttermilk enough to wet up a gallon 
of flour. Lard or butter may be added to make the biscuit short if re¬ 
quired. In summer it must be baked directly, or it will sour. In cold 
weather the dough may be kept. The biscuit will be very light, very 
sweet, very palatable, very nourishing, very wholesome, and a very con¬ 
siderable item of economy in the consumption of an article that is too o£ 
ten made food for hogs, when so valuable as food for man. Bonnyklauber 
will answer as a substitute for buttermilk. But the latter may be put up 
in jars, or a butter keg, in the fall, and kept till spring, by occasionally 
pouring off the water that rises on the top. No matter how sour it be¬ 
comes, put in sal aratus enough and it will become as sweet as fresh yeast, 
and answer the same or a better purpose. 
While upon the subject* let me tell those who are not informed, the 
difference between 
SAL ARATUS AND PEARL ASH. 
Pearl ash is made from the lye of wood ashes; it will make soap, and 
by the affinity it has for water, is very likely to dissolve and waste when 
exposed to the air; it gives food an unpleasant soapy taste when used in 
excess, with lard or other greasy matter. 
Sal aratus is made from pearl ash, by a process that destroys the soapy 
principle, and the affinity for water, so that it will keep dry as well as 
chalk, &c. It is also much more valuable in cooking, on account of pos¬ 
sessing in great excess the very principle of yeast, and produces the same 
effect upon bread when mixed in with acid, by which the gas that produ¬ 
ces what the housewife calls “ raising,” is disengaged from the sal aratus 
and expands all those little cavities in a light loaf. 
The process of changing the pearl ash into sal aratus is very simple. It 
is effected by placing the pearl ash in sacks over the mash-tubs of a grain 
distillery during the process of fermentation, and by the great affinity it 
has for the carbonic acid gas that is disengaged from the meal, it becomes 
not only dryer, but is so much increased in weight as to pay a profit on 
