It may be expected, perhaps, that in treating so fully as we have of the
several kinds of farm building, a full cluster of out-buildings should
be drawn and exhibited, showing their relative positions and
accommodation. This can not be done, however, except as a matter of
"fancy;" and if attempted, might not be suited to the purposes of a
single individual, by reason of the particular location where they would
be situated, and the accommodation which the buildings might require.
Convenience of access to the barns, from the fields where the crops are
grown, a like convenience to get out manures upon those fields, and a
ready communication with the dwelling house, are a part of the
considerations which are to govern their position, or locality. Economy
in labor, in the various avocations at the barn, and its necessary
attachments; and the greatest convenience in storage, and the housing of
the various stock, grains, implements, and whatever else may demand
accommodation, are other considerations to be taken into the account,
all to have a bearing upon them. Compactness is always an object in such
buildings, when not obtained at a sacrifice of some greater advantage,
and should be one of the items considered in placing them; and in their
construction, next to the arrangement of them in the most convenient
possible manner for their various objects, a due regard to their
architectural appearance should be studied. Such appearance, where their
objects are apparent, can easily be secured. _Utility_ should be their
chief point of expression; and no style of architecture, or finish, can
be really _bad_, where this expression is duly consulted, and carried
out, even in the humblest way of cheapness, or rusticity.
We have heretofore sufficiently remarked on the folly of unnecessary
pretension in the farm buildings, of any kind; and nothing can appear,
and really be more out of place, than ambitious structures intended only
for the stock, and crops. Extravagant expenditure on these, any more
than an extravagant expenditure on the dwelling and its attachments,
does not add to the _selling_ value of the farm, nor to its economical
management, in a productive capacity; and he who is about to build,
should make his proposed buildings a study for months, in all their
different requirements and conveniences, before he commences their
erection. Mistakes in their design, and location, have cost men a whole
after life of wear-and-tear of temper, patience, and labor, to
themselves, and to all who were about them; and it is better to wait
even two or three years, to fully mature the best plans of building,
than by hurrying, to mis-locate, mis-arrange, and miss, in fact, the
very best application in their structure of which such buildings are
capable.
A word might also be added about barn-_yards_. The planning and
management of these, also, depends much upon the course the farmer has
to pursue in the keeping of his stock, the amount of waste litter, such
as straw, &c., which he has to dispose of, and the demands of the farm
for animal and composted manures. There are different methods of
constructing barn-yards, in different parts of the country, according to
climate and soils, and the farmer must best consult his own experience,
the most successful examples about him, and the publications which treat
of that subject, in its connection with farm husbandry, to which last
subject this item more properly belongs.