There is a very great diversity in plans of barns and stables, the
taste of individual owners seeming to favor this or that plan, which
they think is best adapted to their needs. Observation of various types
of farm buildings, however, will convince the thoughtful man that too
often a single point of convenience is magnified till other points
are wholly obscured, and to secure the one advantage several decided
conveniences are sacrificed; in a study of conveniences all possible
points should be considered and a decision arrived at which will give
the greatest and sacrifice the least number.
Talking with a dairy farmer living in central New York, who had just
completed a dairy barn which cost him about three thousand dollars,
he told that he had waited a dozen years to build that barn, and had
studied and figured to get the two most important conveniences of a
cement floor to preserve the liquid manure and a drive-way onto the
main floor; to get those he had let go one or two others which he
considered of far less importance, and had at last got a barn exactly
to his liking. One of the conveniences which he had let go was a
covered-way to the barn, and this one point is considered of so great
importance by many that almost everything else is sacrificed to gain
it. We were discussing this point with a farmer whose barn was about
a hundred and fifty feet away from his house, and he was positive
that the advantage of having the barn near to and connected with the
dwelling house was over-estimated; that there were but a very few days
in a year when the covered-way was of so great advantage, and there
were decided advantages in having the barn a little distance from the
house,—among them absence of barn-odors, flies, and noises. With the
barn off a little distance he avoids those, and gains the (to him)
great advantage of a drive-way onto the main floor, a fine basement for
composting the manure and housing the farm carts, etc., and a drive-way
out of the basement with only an insignificant rise to the level of the
fields.
This same farm-barn had one defect, to remedy which we offered the
suggested shed shown in Fig. 35. The barn extended very nearly east
and west, consequently the linter door was exposed to the cold west
and northwest winds of winter, and during the winter the farmer wanted
his cows to have the exercise-room of the barn yard on the south side
of the barn. To overcome the difficulty we suggested an open-front
shed along the west side of the barn yard, and a covered-in walk down
from the linter door to the shed; as subsequently built the shed was
extended five feet beyond the corner of the barn, so as to cover the
linter door, and a broad door in the shed-end gave out to the lane
leading to the pasture. By closing that broad door in the end of the
shed and opening a gate to the barn yard a covered-way was made for the
cows to pass from the linter to the barn yard, without being exposed to
the cold winds of winter, and gaining the complete shelter of the shed
on the west; a simple expedient, and yet a very decided convenience.
[Illustration: FIG. 35—A convenient shed-shelter for west end of barn
yards.]
Driveways onto two or more different floors of a barn or stable are
most substantial aids to the economical doing of the farm work. On
a large Essex county (Mass.) farm which we recently visited a new
hay-barn was being erected, the site for it being especially selected
so that an easy grade could be built to the top floor, permitting the
hay wagons being driven into the top of the barn, under the high roof,
and all the hay was pitched off and down into the twenty-feet deep
mows. A recent letter says: “The new barn is practically done, and
already some twenty loads of hay are in one corner of it. We find it
a great saving of labor; four men in the barn will take better care
of the hay and keep ahead of the gang in the field easier than seven
men and a horse could put it into the top of the barn with a fork.”
A second drive-way leads out of the ground floor of this barn to the
high road, practically on a level, and a third out of the west end of
the basement, whence an easy grade rises to the farm roads. By these
convenient driveways much hard work is eliminated—a most important point
in these days of growing scarcity of farm help. Because of this great
scarcity of help, especially of dependable help, it is a necessity that
the farmer take advantage of every convenience, or labor-saving device,
which will aid him in his work; it is both good economy and good
business policy for him to do so.
We have thought it wise to give here a few simple, practical plans,
which have approved themselves in everyday use. Barns and stables
need not be expensive in construction nor elaborate in fittings;
the important considerations are the comfort of the animals, the
convenience of the owner and the adaptability of the building to its
purpose.
In Figs. 36, 37, and 38 we give a plan for a village stable, for the
man who keeps a horse and one or two cows, and the ground floor also
provides room for the work-bench (which is most desirable where there
are boys in the family), besides standing room for the carriage, wagon
and sleigh.
[Illustration: FIG. 36—A village stable for a horse and cow.]
[Illustration: FIG. 37—Cross-section.]
[Illustration: FIG. 38—Ground plan.]
This stable is planned to be twenty-six feet long by eighteen feet
wide, is ten feet from floor level to eaves, and fourteen feet from
floor to ridge of roof. More pitch can be given to roof if desired, but
with a good roofing like Paroid the roof slope may be slight. It would
be better to make the walls two feet higher if more storage space is
desired above the scaffold floor. The doorway is eight by eight feet,
and stall space eight by eight feet is made in each front corner; a box
stall is provided for the horse and two cow stalls in the left-hand
corner, with a small door opening into the cow linter. Hay scaffolds
seven feet above the floor extend across each end and may be joined at
the rear if desired; a scaffold floor above the large doors extends
from front to rear, or to the drop-scaffold walk connecting the two
side scaffolds at the rear. A basement six or seven feet deep under the
whole is a valuable addition to such a stable, making room for storing
and rotting the manure, and a storage room for roots, etc., in one
corner.
Six-inch-square sills, posts, and floor stringers are amply strong for
the strain usually put upon a small stable, and the center posts, set
at corners of box stall and cow stalls, help carry the main floor and
the storage floor above. If preferred, the intermediate posts may be
set in the center and the stall-spaces extended a foot, making them
eight by nine feet. With the roof covered with Paroid Roofing, and
the sides with Neponset Red Rope Roofing battened on laps and halfway
between laps, a very neat and economically constructed stable is made.
If desired a richer appearance may be given to the roof by adding the
ornamental battens shown on page 28 and painting the whole a dark red.
The farm-barn is a most important aid to economy of labor, if rightly
planned, and we give on this page the plans of a small barn, for a
farm where eight or ten cows are kept, such as is quite common in New
England and the Middle States, and which gives excellent satisfaction
everywhere. On the farm where this plan was studied the pair of horses
were housed in a small horse barn nearer the dwelling house, the
Democrat wagon, canopy top carriage and sleigh, etc., being under the
same roof.
[Illustration: FIG. 39—A barn for a small dairy farm.]
[Illustration: FIG. 40—Ground plan.]
[Illustration: FIG. 41—Cross-section.]
This barn is forty-four feet long by thirty-four feet wide, and is
built in four “bays” of eleven feet in length each. The main floor is
twelve feet wide, and hay wagons drive in at either end and out at the
other. The cow stalls occupy all of the linter on the south side, a
door at the end opening into the lane to the pasture. The first bay
on the north side is ceiled up with tongued and grooved boards, has a
tight floor overhead, and is used as a grain storeroom; the other three
bays on that side are hay mows from floor to roof.
Over the main floor and fifteen feet above it is a floor for hay, or
corn, or used for general storage at different seasons. There was no
floor on the collar-beams when the present owner bought the farm.
Strong poles had been laid across the space and surplus hay thrown
on them; since being floored over the owner says it is the best part
of the barn, and invaluable for drying out crops not fully cured. A
basement about six feet in depth receives the manure from the cows,
and three or four logs have the run of the cellar and manure heaps,
thoroughly rotting and “fining” the manure for the next season’s crops.
The frame of this barn is of eight-inch square hemlock timber, the
braces three by four inch hemlock mortised into posts and stringers,
the floor stringers three by nine inches, two feet apart and well
cross-bridged, the floor of three-inch plank. The scaffold floor is of
inch boards laid on two by six inch stringers three feet apart, and is
amply strong for any load put upon it.
Grain bins along two sides of the grain room may be four feet wide,
and, fitted with drop fronts may be five feet high and divided into two
or more compartments. Two small bins may be fitted in each side of the
window; the window may be in the end if preferred.