Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-11-29
FARM BUILDINGS.
BY Professor Jones, of the Iowa Ag-
ricultural College.

From the Iowa Homestead.
Sup't. Roberts and myself have
had a little discussion about the
best general arrangement for ''farm
buildings" The question may be
stated thus:
''Requircd certaina amount of
space for housing cattle, for sta.
bling, for storage Of grain and hay,
for wagons and other farm imple-
ments, and required a certain de-
gree Of comfort and convenience in
the arrangement and use Of this
space; and required a certain de-
gree Of durability or permanency in
the several structures. Shall this
space be embraced in one large
building or in several smaller
ones?"
The plan of condensing all in one
large building is we'll exemplified
in tie standard Pennsylvania barn
which the traveller can but remark
as he travels through that old and
wealthy State and observes the gen
eral air of thrift and comfort which
appears among the farmers. He
sees a long and rather lofty barn
standing upon hillside, either
wood or stone above, but always
with stone basement beneath. There
may or may not be few single
rooted sheds attached as wind
breaks; but in general everything
is concentrated in this one large
building. The Massachusetts Agri-
cultural College has its new barn
built upon this plan, but adds to it
a manure cellar beneath the base
ment stables. Col. Warning has
built similar barn upon Ogden
farm. Geo. Clark, a wealthy farm
err in Central New York, has barn
built upon the same general plan
which cost him $4,000; and he
was said to be building another still
larger.
Throughout Pennsylvania, New
York and New England, the poor
farmer looks with envy upon his
Weather neighbor who possesses
such Accommodations, and hopes and
plans for the same for himself
This College has pulled down its
sheds and is about to erect new
barn upon the same plan, batting the
manure cellar, and hopes thereby to
care for its stock with greater COM
fort and less cost.
On the other hand, the published
drawings Of English farm sheds
show numerous small buildings,
sheds rather than barns as we un.
dcrstand the words, either detached
, or loosely joined, as convenience may
dictate-they cover large area and
are rarely above one story in height
Moreover, in them all appears the
rick yard, with the frequent addition
of a railway track for transportation
The best example of this arrange.
ment which l have met with in this
country is upon Beacon Stock Farm.
Forthport, Long Island, now under
the management of Mr.. VIM. Gro
zier. / gave some account of this
place in the Homestead, last winter.
Mr.. Crozier is a Scotchman, and
learned farming in Scotland. He
uses Scotch plows, Scotch harrows,
Scotch cattle, Scotch horses and
Scotch notions. The farm was per-
haps the best managed of any which
I had the pleasure of visiting last
winter. Among the rest Of his
Scotch arrangements, he had intro
duced the Scotch farm yard sur
ounded by sheds, generally Of one
story in height and of width vary
ing with their several uses. For
the most part the roofs were fiat and
covered, over the boarding, with a
concrete of tar and gravel. His hay
was in part in barns and in part in
stacks; but in hay barns no cattle
were kept, and in the stables no hay
was kept. In only one instance
was any work done off the general
level. In that one case the princi-
pal barn stood on a side hill and
had a basement. Upon the main
floor were the various machines for
threshing, for husking, and for cut
ting hay, stalks and roots. In the
basement was the box or tank for
steaming feed, which was charged
from the main floor above; the wood
saw, the grist mill and the root Gel
lar. In the loft was kept the grain
and some hay.