404 wisconsi:n' State Agricultural Society. 
the satisfaction of knowing, on cold and windy nights, that no ani¬ 
mal on his premises is suffering. 
Many men have well digested ideas about barn building, but 
there may be some who have not completed their plans and would 
be glad to receive suggestions from others. What we all want is a 
strong barn with the least amount of framed timber, with no timbers 
in the way, and of such dimensions that animals can be well accom¬ 
modated and conveniently fed, with the greatest possible amount 
of storage. 
Some rather absurd claims have of late been put forth for the 
octagon barn. When any of my neighbors show signs of octo-de- 
velopment it will be time enough for me to exhibit such remedies 
as I can; but as a precautionary measure, I will say something in 
defense of the gabled-roof of the rectangular barn. This roof space, 
even to the very peak and from end to end, is as precious as any 
space within the barn, for here runs the horse-fork carrier from one 
end of the barn to the other, depositing its load at any point desired, 
even to the very peak, making it convenient to remove hay from 
one bay to another, or to take it from any bay and thri)w it out of 
doors at the gable end, or to take it in at the gable end to fill up 
the main floor, when thought best to do so. The horse-fork makes 
even the beams that cross the bays of very lung barns an element 
of usefulness in dividing different kinds of hay, or hay from bundles, 
instead of their being in the way, as they are, to a serious extent, 
in using the hand-fork. 
For a hundred years the standard barn has been 30 by 40 feet, 
with driving floor in the center, stock on one side and a bay or 
stock on the other. If we have no basement story, we can scarcely 
improve on this, so far as the general plan is concerned. We can 
make our posts 24 feet high, instead of 14 or 16 — this latter, or 
possibly 18 feet, being the highest stretch of the enterprise of the 
fathers. We can now fill our high barn with but a tithe of tlie 
labor and in much less time than our fathers required to fill their 
low one. So we will settle the height of posts at 24 feet, remem¬ 
bering that the extra cubical contents of the high barn is not our 
only gain. The increased pressure brought upon the bottom of the 
hay greatly increases the capacity of the bay. The length of this 
standard barn also needs lengthening, as well as the posts. Twelve 
feet is not wide enough for a barn floor; thirteen and a half feet is 
