152 
Annual Report of the 
buildings sprinkled in at random, poor in quality, badly watched 
over, devoted to any use the last exigency happened to require, em¬ 
braced by one pervasive, omnipresent mud-yard, whose only choices 
lie between ankle-deep and knee-deep, thick mud and thin mud, 
green slime and black slime; the remains of broken enclosures and 
unhinged gates, as if the one thing desirable was a quick exit in 
every direction; and stock, it matters not much whether good or 
bad, standing about with the subdued, disconsolate meekness, or 
with the vicious irritability which fall to habitual discomfort, give 
us a picture of the most wasteful, brainless, heartless husbandry, 
and one which must tell on man and beast in profits and in posi¬ 
tion, in the most disastrous way. If w^e oppose to this, compact 
well-arranged, comfortable, sufficiently large and well-kept barns, 
clean and easy of approach, with a neat house-ward side, and rear 
enclosures well-drained, warm and cheerful; tenanted by contented 
stock in good heart, suggesting their own enjoyments and the en¬ 
joyments of their owner, we have a contrast which speaks of the 
widest moral, intellectual, social and physical differences. Heaven 
and earth smile on the one owner, and unite to make his face frank, 
thoughtful, and cheerful, and his purse full. Heaven and earth 
frown on the other owner; bring to his features stolid endurance or 
chronic irritation, and one disease and disaster after another on his 
cattle, to deplete his purse. The wealth of our soil may save such a 
farmer for a while, but nature hates him, and will have her way with 
him in the end. 
The points of economy that I make in reference to farm-build¬ 
ings are these. First, small detached sheds, wagon-houses, horse- 
barns, and hog-barns, and no barns are to be avoided. Farm-build¬ 
ings are to be centralized and sustained by one capacious, well-or- 
dered barn, which holds completely in itself most of the service and 
produce of the farm. The expense of six buildings, both in their 
erection and maintainance, is much greater than the expense of a 
single building having the capacity of them all; while the conven¬ 
ience of work, especially in the winter, is much less. Barn build¬ 
ings, in the one case, lose all interest to the eye; in the other, they 
may be pleasing, even imposing structures. 
The second point is dryness and warmth. The expense of these, 
in the first instance, is very little, while the decay, the disease, dis¬ 
comfort, and additional consumption of food attendant on wet yards 
