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tained ; and, when unavoidably employed, it 
ought to consist either of a similar preparation 
to what is suitable for thrashing-floors, or of 
well-tempered and unabsorbent mineral matter, 
mixed or alternated with chopped straw. Earth 
and timber are sometimes jointly used, by a 
frame-work of boards being erected two feet in 
width, a hard packing of perfectly dry earth being 
consolidated into all the frame-work, and a coat 
of plaster of Paris, or of very fine mortar, being 
laid over all the exterior. When stone or brick 
is employed, all the interior should receive a coat 
of plaster, and the ceiling should be lathed and 
plastered; and when the stone is built in rubble 
masonry, a coat of rough-cast plaster ought to be 
given to the exterior. The stone or brick walls 
of properly constructed barns, after the roof is 
put on, are built at the top, by some careful 
farmers, close up to the covering, and well plas- 
| tered between the scantlings. 
The roof ought, for the sake of economy, to be 
so constructed, as to acquire all requisite strength 
from the least possible expenditure of timber. 
The imposing of the whole weight upon strong 
horizontal beams, without producing aid from 
trussing, displays a meagre, uninventive, hobnail 
| state of mind, scarcely worthy of a Caffre or a 
Hottentot. When tiles are used for covering the 
roof, they ought to be laid in mortar, or, what is 
much better, in coarse, compact hay. Straw 
thatch, though a very common covering, affords 
a ready and almost impregnable retreat for rats. 
Any reeds which contain a considerable quantity 
of silica, or which have a hard and brittle tex- 
ture, make an excellent covering, both for re- 
sisting vermin and affording full shelter from the 
weather. 
The floor of the barn, if it be a one-story build- 
ing, or of the corn-barn, if it be situated below 
the thrashing-barn, requires to be carefully con- 
structed in some manner which will afford per- 
fect protection from both damp and vermin. If 
the floor be laid with deal, and not built solid 
with stone and mortar, the spaces between the 
scantlings may be filled with very clean, dry gravel, 
well beat down; or if gravel cannot be obtained, 
or should not be deemed necessary, openings 
ought to be left under the floor to admit cats to 
every point where vermin might lodge.. In clay 
floors, to prevent the burrowing of vermin, a 
considerable quantity of broken glass is some- 
times mixed with the materials of the floor, for 
the space of three feet all round the walls. Mr. 
Stephens mentions, in his “ Book of the Farm,” 
a very effectual method of construction which he 
adopted for preventing the attacks of either damp 
or vermin. “The earth, in the first instance,” 
says he, “is dug out of the barn to the depth of 
the foundations of the walls, which should be two 
feet below the door-soles; and in the case of a 
new steading, this can be done when the founda- 
tions of the walls are taken out. The ground is 
then spread over with a layer of sand, sufficient 
BARN. 
to preserve steadiness in the stout rough flags, 
which are laid upon it, and jointed in strong 
mortar. ‘Twelve-inch thick sleeper walls of stone 
and lime are then built on the flags to serve the 
purpose of supporting each end of the joists of the 
floor. The joists, formed of 10 by 24 inch plank, 
are then laid down 16 inches apart, and the 
spaces between them filled up to the top with 
stone and lime. The building between the joists 
requires to be done in a peculiar way. It should 
be done with squared rubble stones, and on no 
account should the mortar come in contact with 
the joists, as there is nothing destroys timber, by 
superinducing the dry rot, more readily than the 
action of mortar upon it. For this reason, great 
care should be observed in building in the joists 
into the walls, in placing the safe-lintels over the 
doors and windows, the stones being dry-bedded 
over them, and in beam-filling between the couple- 
legs. The floor is then properly laid on a level 
with the door-sole, and finished with a neat skift- 
ing board round the walls of the barn. By this 
contrivance, the vermin cannot possibly reach 
the floor but from the flags, which are nearly two 
feet under it. ‘This construction of floor admits 
of abundance of air above and below to preserve 
it, and affords plenty of room under it for cats 
and dogs to hunt after the vermin.” 
A thrashing-floor is, of course, a principal fea- 
ture of all barns when no thrashing-machine is 
used; but it is highly desirable and even requi- 
site in other cases, for the thrashing out of small 
seeds, such as those of clovers and grasses, for 
which the thrashing- machine is not properly 
adapted. The thrashing-floor of a one-story 
barn is generally situated across the centre; and 
when the width of the barn is not sufficient for 
it, porches are added to the doors, to admit of 
its elongation. The divisions of the barn which 
are separated by the floor, or situated between it 
and the ends, are called the bays, and the storings 
of unthrashed corn in them are called the mows. 
But, when a barn is so constructed as to receive 
its supplies or unloadings of unthrashed corn at 
one end, the thrashing-floor is situated across 
the other end, and the corn is stored in the in- 
termediate space. In a barn upon the second 
story of a building, the thrashing-floor must be 
firmly supported and kept quite steady by pillars 
or a partition wall below, and must be so strong | 
and well-jointed as not to permit a filtration of 
fine dust. An ordinary thrashing-floor measures 
from 18 to 20 feet in length, and from 12 to 14 
in width; yet every one must be modified in ex- 
tent to suit the number of flails which it is ex- 
pected to keep in play. <A brick thrashing-floor 
is liable to bruise the corn, to imbibe moisture, 
to give off pulverizations of its substance into 
mixture with the corn, and to hurt the hands 
and damage the implements of the workers. A 
stone-thrashing-floor may or may not be eligible 
according to the nature and texture of the stone 
employed, and to the degree of skill employed in 
BE a AERTS, SS EI SUPE TARR NS SI GN SU Uv NI RPO MCI Se Ce  ET , 
