1808.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
255 
tween rows where the common cultivators and 
liorse-lioes are better employed before the plants 
begin to cover much breadth of soil. A piece 
of oak slab, ten inches wide and about three 
inches thick, was taken, and six harrow teeth 
were set in it, all having a rake to the rear. Af¬ 
ter the first two, the others had an outward slant, 
so that the rear teeth spread at the points fully 
one foot, the front ones being about six inches 
apart. A handle was improvised, bolted to the 
slab in front and braced behind, and a plain clevis 
completed the affair, which has, at a moderate 
estimate, paid for itself twice over already. 
Another Kansas Corn House. 
Mr. Crawford Moore, of Leavenworth Co., 
Kansas, thinks we do injustice to his corn house 
by the intimation that the one built by “Ottawa 
Jones,” figured on page 57, (February), might 
be the best in the State of Kansas. Our read¬ 
ers may see both plans, and judge between 
them. It will be seen by reference to the en¬ 
graving that the house stands upon sloping 
ground, and thus while the roof and floors are 
level, the floor of each section of 20 feet drops 
down a step. The entire building is GO feet in 
length by 30 in width, and is constructed as fol¬ 
lows : It has an alley or cart-way running 
lengthwise through the center, which is 10 feet 
wide at the sills, and 8 feet wide at the top. 
On each side of the alley is a crib 10 feet wide 
at the bottom, and 11 feet at the top. The outer 
and inner sides of the cribs are slatted perpen¬ 
dicularly; the gable ends are close-boarded. 
Each crib-gable has a door, and sliding doors 
upon rollers close the cart-way at each end. 
There is a floored loft over the whole, lighted 
by doors in the ends, which is used for storing 
grain and agricultural implements. These are 
hoisted by a block and tackle through trap 
doors. The building rests on 52 oak posts, rest¬ 
ing on stone bases, set two feet in the ground, 
and coming six inches above the surface. It is 
built entirely of native oak and walnut. The 
posts at one end are 10 feet long; at the other, a 
little over 12, on account of the slope of the 
ground. The cribs will each hold 6,080 bushels 
of corn, allowing three half-bushels for a bushel 
of ears. Mr. Moore adds: “ Tell those Down-east- 
ers to sell their little ten-acre patches, and come 
out here and buy 1G0 acres, and have plenty of 
money left to stock it well.” In behalf of the 
“ Down-easters,” who enjoy proximity to good 
markets and don’t like to get far beyond the 
smell of salt water, we tell him, if he thinks 
he can afford to do with less land and smaller 
corn cribs, he may sell his quarter section and 
get money enough to buy a ten-acre farm east, 
but not have money enough left to stock it. 
Barn Cellars free from Posts. 
Manure cellars under the cattle and in first- 
class barns have been the subject of no little 
discussion among progressive and sound-think¬ 
ing men. There are fairly two sides to the 
question. By means of cellars a very large quan¬ 
tity of excellent manure may be made with a 
minimum amount of labor. With tight floors 
and thorough flue ventilation, the cattle get no 
harm, the stables are warm, and the air in them 
pure. Those who object to them do not claim 
greater profit, but a better quality of manure, 
(with a greater propor¬ 
tionate amount of labor), 
a greater degree of fresh¬ 
ness and purity of air in 
the stables, and in the 
whole barn. In this they 
are, indeed, right, unless 
great and constant care is 
taken to maintain clean¬ 
liness and ventilation. In 
measuring ordinary farm 
profits merely, the prefer¬ 
ence is to be given to the 
plan of storing the ma¬ 
nure in the cellar. We 
present here a communi¬ 
cation from our Shaker 
friend, Elijah Myrick, up¬ 
on the subject. He says: 
“ The important subject of barn cellars seems 
to have passed the experimental stage, and the 
real practical necessity and profit to a farm being 
fully established, it only remains to employ the 
means to make it the most convenient and effec¬ 
tive. To most farmers this is the only building 
to which they look for 
profit. And it is for 
their interest that it 
should be so construct¬ 
ed and managed as 
most easily to secure it. 
A cellar under a barn is | 
as cheap as it is neces¬ 
sary, and should be 
made a source of as 
much profit, or more, 
than any room under the 
roof. For making and 
keeping manure, storing 
tools, keeping hogs, 
sheep, and small cattle, 
the room is almost in¬ 
dispensable. I have in 
mind a barn 140 by 45 
feet, with 2G feet posts, 
built in 1831, without 
any cellar; otherwise 
it combined many of 
the modern improve¬ 
ments. In 1855 it was 
raised eight feet, mak¬ 
ing a nine-foot cellar 
under the whole, count¬ 
ing on the advantage of 
the cellar for manure alone. Without any extra 
labor, the hay on the same land has nearly 
doubled, which is attributed wholly to the in¬ 
creased quantity and qualify of manure. The 
barn being very heavy when filled with hay and 
cattle, it was thought necessary to put posts un¬ 
der the two rows of center posts, thereby caus¬ 
ing very serious and objectionable barriers to a 
free use of the cellar when carting in and out, 
though the posts were 12 to 15 feet apart. 
That there should be no unnecessary obstruc¬ 
tion in depositing and drawing from the ‘Farm¬ 
er’s Bank,’ these posts are now being removed 
with safety, and at an expense by no means out 
of proportion to the convenience. The accompa¬ 
nying sketch of a section of a frame shows a very 
simple method of supporting a frame. The rods 
are made in pieces, coupled together under each 
beam, the couplings being about 4 inches long 
and 3 inches in diameter with a flange on the 
top end, which serves as a collar to support the 
beam above it. Being thus connected and with 
a nut and collar at the top and bottom ends, 
the rods make a cheap and sure support. The 
collars should be made a little crowning on the 
face side, and then they will not break. By this 
method the cross beams may all be whole and 
much stronger than when framed into middle 
posts. Then they will sustain all lateral press¬ 
ure, and be strong enough to fully compensate 
for lack of braces. The roof will be very 
strongly braced. The long braces under the 
eaves are not objectionable;—one long brace 
is worth two short ones, in our opinion. 
I have seen several large barns trussed up in 
various ways. Some have worked well; others 
have failed to meet the expectation, for want of 
proper construction. In all, so far as I know, 
both frame and rods have been used; that is, 
they have been framed without any reference 
to using rods, and afterwards they were applied, 
making great and needless expense of labor and 
material, and the necessity of splicing either the 
beams or posts where they cross each other. 
The illustrations show simple, neat, and dur¬ 
able structures, and a pleasing style of archi¬ 
tecture, as well as widely applicable. Fig. 2 rep¬ 
resents a section, or rather the different modes 
of supporting the different sections, in the barn 
Fig. 1.— SECTION OF BAISN. 
referred to above, now having the posts removed. 
The right hand post has the lower part removed 
in front of the cattle; on the left hand side the 
sill is secured to the post by a joint bolt run¬ 
ning up into the post. Fig. 1 represents two 
ways of supporting the frame of common barns 
when built new. They both show double stable 
barns; that is, on the first floor there are two 
stables running the whole length on either side, 
and a feed floor in the middle. On'' the next loft 
is a hay bay on each side, with drive floor in 
