BARN. 
the dressing and laying of the stone; but, in most 
instances, it is nearly or quite as objectionable 
as a brick thrashing-floor. Some earthen or 
mineral composition thrashing-floors are toler- 
ably good, others are of medium character, and 
others are altogether bad, according to the na- 
ture of their materials and the method of their 
construction ; yet by far the greater number are 
subject to the very serious objection of slowly 
pulverizing and passing into commixture with 
the corn. The following method of forming an 
earthen floor is noticed by the Rev. Mr. Rham 
as an usual one:—“ The soil is taken out to the 
depth of six or eight inches or more, and, if the 
subsoil is of a moist nature, a layer of gravel and 
dry sand is laid on the bottom 3 or 4 inches 
thick, and trod smooth and level. A mixture is 
made of clay or loam and sand, with water, to 
the consistency of common building mortar, to 
_ which is added some chalk or pounded shells or 
gypsum, where these can be obtained ; chaff, cow- 
dung, and some bullock’s blood are added; and 
the whole is well worked up together. Of this 
a coat is laid on the prepared bottom with a 
trowel, about an inch thick, and spread evenly. 
This is allowed to dry; another coat is then put 
over, and all the cracks carefully filled up. This 
is repeated till the desired thickness is produced. 
When it begins to harden, the whole is well 
rammed with a heavy wooden rammer, and 
every crack filled up so as to give it the appear- 
ance of a uniform solid body. This is left to 
harden slowly, neither exposed to the rays of the 
sun nor to draughts of air, and in a short time 
the floor becomes sufficiently hard to be used. 
It is advisable, however, to give it some months 
to consolidate entirely. The best time for lay- 
ing such a floor is in spring, that it may be com- 
pletely hardened before the succeeding winter.” 
A kind of thrashing-floor not dissimilar to this 
was common among the Romans. Columellastates 
that they first dug up the ground to some depth, 
in order to moisten it with fresh lees of oil,—that 
they then mixed it with chaff, and rammed it 
down as closely as possible,—that, after it be- 
came dry, they stopped up all cracks and crevices 
which appeared,—that they continued, with great 
force, to beat it down, and render it quite level, 
—and that, finally, they strewed it with chaff, 
trod the chaff into it, and left the surface to be 
completely dried by the sun. Columella, Cato, 
and Varro, all assert that the preparing of the 
thrashing-floor with the lees of oil prevented 
the appearance of mischievous vegetation, and 
contributed to preserve the corn from the at- 
tacks of mice and ants. A thrashing-floor of 
oak or of other lasting timber, though more ex- 
pensive than any other kind of thrashing-floor 
in its original construction, is eventually the 
cheapest and in all respects the most eligible ; 
and, in particular, it gives far the best play and 
rebound to the flail, and yields neither discol- 
oaken planks ought to be 25 inches thick, well 
joined at the edges by dowelling, or by plough- 
ing and tongueing, and made firm upon oaken 
sleepers by means of a few iron spikes. Beech 
planks may be used, 2 inches thick, well dowelled 
together, and laid upon a bed of small boulder 
stones; and they are considerably more econo- 
mical than oaken planks, and will wear very 
smooth, and i1fot splinter. Planks of elm may 
also be very successfully employed. 
The preservation of corn from a close and 
musty smell, and from other indications of 
chemical change and decay, exceedingly depends, 
not only upon perfect protection from moisture, 
but upon a free and abundant circulation of air. 
Every barn, therefore, ought to be pierced with 
a sufficient number of slits or openings to admit 
of such a circulation; and the corn ought to be 
so laced and so lightly built as to allow the air to 
percolate everywhere to its centre. An excel- 
lent contrivance for combining perfect circulation 
of air, with facility of shelter during a rainy har- 
vest, and with one or two other important con- 
veniences, is a structure called a skeleton barn. 
This is a barn, not in any degree for thrashing, 
but wholly for storage; and sustains a middle 
character between a large corn-rick and the bays 
of a thrashing-barn. On a timber platform, laid 
upon capped stones, is erected a rough timber 
frame of a perfect two-story barn; the roof is 
covered with thatch or tiles; and a downward 
extension of the roof is so far continued on both 
sides as to overhang open wings or piazzas of 
sufficient width and height to admit a corn-laden 
cart or waggon. 
the barn frame is used for the storing of un- 
thrashed corn, and serves exactly the purposes | 
of a huge rick, with the double advantage of | 
saving all the cost and trouble of annual thatch- | 
ing, and of affording entire protection at every 
height, or to a store of corn a few feet high as | 
fully as to a store which reaches to the roof; and | 
the wings serve as a shelter, under which carts 
or waggons can be drawn and unloaded, and 
afterwards may either be used as cart-sheds, or 
provided with platforms, and used, like the cen- 
tre, for the storage of unthrashed corn. The 
convenience of such an erection is, in almost any 
circumstances, considerable, and, during a criti- 
cal rainy harvest, is exceedingly great; nor, in 
most cases, will it, upon an average of years, cost 
much more, or perhaps any more than ordinary 
annual rick-building. Another kind of skeleton 
barn—oftener used, however, for hay than for 
corn—consists simply of the wooden frame of a 
common one-story barn, without wings or gates, 
the bays being used for storage, and the central 
place of the gates and the thrashing-floor being 
left open and unoccupied for the unloading or 
the temporary shelter of a cart of hay. 
Skeleton hay barns are very common in some 
districts of England, and, where they exist, are 
303 
The whole of the interior of | 
ee nor powdery matter to the grain. The | generally much appreciated. The skeleton of a 
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