406 
WISCONSIN STATE AORIGULTURAL SOCIETY. 
tity in either case. The same roof covers all. The wagon work 
for the basement is done on the floor already made above, so that 
all the room gained can be in constant use. This story should not 
be buried in the earth, but should be built well above ground, with 
dirt drawn in to build up a roadway to main doors, and to cover 
root cellar. If the barn has a basement, there must be two feet 
added to the forty-six named above to make allowance for the thick- 
ness-of walls, and to have the same conveniences below that we 
have just named, without haring in our way the support to middle 
cross sills. 
We now have height and length. The width must be more par¬ 
ticularly determined by him who builds. Let him remember, how”- 
ever, that it is not wise to cramp every thing down as nearly as 
possible to simple standing room for his stock. A roomy, airy bed¬ 
room is a great promoter of health for animals as well as men. If 
the width of the barn 46 or 48 feet long was left for me to deter¬ 
mine, it would be fixed at 36 feet. The rows of cattle in the base¬ 
ment of such a barn as is now marked out, can run either way, leav¬ 
ing ample room for passages. 
Remember that it takes no more main timbers, and no more work 
to frame them, for a barn 46 or 48 feet long, than for one 36 or 40. 
The true economy is to place the bents as far apart as will admit of 
reliability in the plates to hold up the greatest weight of damp 
snow that can be expected to rest upon them. Braced mortices 
and the waned corners of beams and girts, on their upper sides 
next to boarding, should be filled up with mortar, thus breaking up 
as far as possible the nests and runways of rats and mice. 
The great secret in making a wall that will not crack, and in time 
fall down, is not in having flat and square stones, but in digging 
deep enough to get the bottom of the wall below frost. If laid deep 
enough, any stones are good enough for a barn wall, for the mortar 
itself is more ihan sufficient for all the strength needed. We often 
use sandstone that has not half the strength of the mortar that is 
laid around it after it is a few days old. A cubic foot of mortar six 
months old will bear a pressure of fifty tons. As an ordinary barn 
with ail the hay, grain, tools and stock that can be conveniently 
got into it will hardly weigh 200 tons, it follows that we need not 
put ourselves greatl}’’ out of the way to get shapely material for the 
wall.' 
