The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-12-01
STABLE CONSTRUCTION.
Tho AdVisabillty of Arranging Every Thing
So as to Save Steps.

So to Save steps.
l have come to the determination
never to put plank floor into a stable
! again, but to use cement. | visited
/ recently some stables foored with it,
one OF which has been in use for five
years, and in stalls where heavy, sharp
shod horses have stood, there is not
visible sign of wear. 1t is expensive
keeping up plank floors and they soon
become saturated with urine and make
the stable malOdorous, but with a good
concrete floor and plenty OF bedding we
save all the urine and have a compare
lively sweet stable. My new barn has
been built less than four years but al
ready the floors are giving us trouble,
and | shall begin to replace them with
| concrete, and after we get all this floor
laid | will tell how it is done and give
you an idea of the cost. Another
point | want you to study while in
specting your barn is the arrangement
of every thing to save steps. Take
your pencil and figure what the saving
OF five minutes day would amount to
in lifetime. 1t will amount to three
days OF ten hours each year, and
while this is not great amount OF time
1t is certainly worth saving, and the
barns are not rare where it would be
easy to save much more time than this
by a little planning.
| visited recently a young farmer
and found that he had box stall that
had been built on the edge of his stable,
but with door entering from the north
barnyard and no communication with
the stable. To reach this box stall one
must go out of the east door Of his
stable (the box stall is at the west end),
go twenty feet east and open a gate and
pass into the north barnyard, then turn
west and go about sixty feet to the box
stall, and Judge from the venerable
appearance of this barn that this has
been done for thirty years or more. In
single rainy half day door could be
cut from the main stable to the box
stall and these long journeys three times
day be done away with. Forty years
ago | moved into this neighborhood
and barn near me which visited had
the main door, which is used an aver
age Of twenty times day, made only
about five feet high so that one must
stoop sharply to enter it. | was in that
barn again this summer and found the
identical door as low as ever, and yet
two or three hours time would replace
it with door high enough so that one
could walk into it with sack of grain
or basket of corn on his shoulder. l
visited another farm and found the
door through which the owner passed
every time he fed his horses was so
narrow that he could not walk through
it with the basket of corn on his arm
but must swing it around in front OF
him to get through, and on asking why
the door was not made wider he
/ laughed and said: Father made that
door forty years ago" l presume he
| is using it still.
! | do not wish to be over-critical but
I know how easy it is to form habits Of
neglect, and | call attention to these
matters in the hope that it will lead
some of my readers to arrange con-
veniently for doing these daily repeated
chores which absorb so large portion
of our time and strength Waldo +.
| BrOlCn, IN Ohio Farmer.