Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-10-22
Shall Barns be Tight-Boarded.

Many years ago we modestly OPP
posed the notion that barn boarding
must be put on so that the air could
circulate freely through and through.
Also, that the practice of keeping the
barn doors open day and night while
hauling in hay and grain was right
and philosophical. The free circula-
ton of air, it was then shown, tended
to produce fermentation, OF slow
combustion; and that grass, if cut in
the stage when it contained the
largest per centage of sugar, was ex-
tremely liable to fermentation when
exposed to air in the NOW. This
fact is proven by every farmers ex-
perience, which tells him that hay IN
the stack must be ripper and dryer to
keep we'll than hay which goes into
the NOW, even under shelter OF open
barns. Most of our farmers are now
convinced that tight barns keep hay,
grain and everything else better than
open barns, and hence we frequently
see them covered with boards planned,
battened and painted.
1t is the free circulation of air
through the hay that causes terment-
alton and mouldIness. And because
the air finds its way readily among
the coarse stalks Of clover, which,
when green, contain much sacharine
matter, it is next to impossible to
prevent fermentation. But if clover
could be pressed down to solid
mass in the NOW and the air excluded
there would no heating or mouldiness
occur, and the hay would be bright
and sweet. The truth here indicated
is made plain where NOW has been
half filled with wheat, which acted
as a great weight in press and ex-
cluded the air.
OF course air cannot be excluded
altogether from hay cocks in the
field. or from mows, but in the latter,
a rapid circulation may be prevented
by making the boarding tight and by
keeping the doors closed.
Green hay packs closer than that
which is very dry, and it is found in
practice that clover cooked up quite
green excludes the air better, and
consequently makes better hay than
if allowed to get dry beforehand
We know that if the latent air could
be expelled from ton OF green clio
yer and then the clover could be pla-
ced in an alright box or receptacle,
it would remain fresh and sweet for
any length of time. These facts are
full of useful suggestions which are
very easily turned to good account
in various ways. We add the follow
ing from the Rurat Home:
at has been the custom to side up barns
with green boards so that in shrinking
they will leave wide cracks for the access
of air to hay mows. An important prin-
ciple has been here overlooked. Fermen-
tation, like combustion, requires oxygen
to carry it on. Many farmers have learn
ed that manure will not ferment when
well trodden so as to exclude the air, and
that it seldom tirefangs when thrown
where the cattle can tread upon it. TIL
class above all others interested IN gras
and hay is dairymen, They have ascer
tanned by experiments directed by science
that hay will keep better in clapboarded
or patterned barns than in the open stack.
That the heating will be so moderate as
to only dry out the hay without moulding.
If it is fact that hay may thus be safely
put into a large NOW in a tight barn less
cured than ordinary usage requires it is IA
very important fact for farmers, as it will
enable them to gather their hay crop quite
independent of the vicissitudes of the
weather, for even when hay is in the cock
the exterior surface is injured by rain or
dew"