The planning, construction, and arrangement of farm buildings
do not usually receive the thought and study these subjects
warrant. How many dairymen have compared a circular, 40-cow
barn with the common rectangular building containing the same
area? How many understand that the circular structure is much
the stronger; that the rectangular form requires 22 percent
more wall and foundation to enclose the same space; and that
the cost of material is from 34 to 58 percent more for the
rectangular building?
In a community in which everyone is engaged in the same occupation, one
person is likely to copy from his neighbor without apparently giving a
thought as to whether or not there is a better way.
In a district of Kane county, Illinois, a certain type of dairy barn is
used by nearly everyone, while in the next county a distinctly different
type prevails, and the dairy barns of another adjacent county differ
from those of either of the former, simply because the early settlers of
this particular locality came from an eastern state and started building
the style of barn then common in Pennsylvania.
In a certain community in Ohio where a milk condensing factory is
located, a large number of farmers have barns 36 x 60 feet, with an "L"
the same size. The loft of the "L" is used for the storage of straw, and
the cows run loose in the lower portion. These barns are all built on
practically the same plan and are usually of the same size, and this is
the only community known to the writer where this form of barn is used
in this manner.
This tendency to imitate emphasizes the fact that men do not exercise
sufficient originality. Because most barns are rectangular is no reason
that this is the best and most economical form.