The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-10-11
GOOD STOCK BARN.
One That Will Pay for Itself in the Course
of n Few Years. r

GOOD STOCK BARN.
One That will Pay for Itself in the Course
ola Few Years.
But what is warm stable? Not a
building boarded with inch boards,
with cracks open for the wind to blow
through. and perhaps destitute Of UNI
der pinning. so the wind can blow un-
der it and come up through the floor.
/ think cattle tied up in stalls in such
stables sometimes suffer more than if
outdoors. for they can not exercise or
change position, and must stand dumb
ly and suffer. What call warm sta
BILE is one thoroughly underpinned SO
that no cold can come up from below.
and double boarded up the sides. with
building paper between. and all the
doors and windows carefully fitted. 1t
is possible at a moderate expense to
make stables so warm that a barrel OF
potatoes could stand in them without
freezing. with mercury at or below
zero, and it will pay to do this. A sta
Bile 25x50 feet will furnish stall
room for twelve cattle, with 8 feet
taken off at one end for feed rooms,
meal bins, etc., and stable 1Sx24 feet
for throwing the manure from the
stalls, and this will stable from eight to
twelve calves; or it can be divided when
necessary into box stalls. by temporary
partitions. Such barn can be built OF
good material and in thorough man.
ner for 800 or less, and the extra cost
to double board the stable and put
building paper between would not ex-
coed $40. Now l believe it to be
moderate estimate that cattle fed in
such stable will gain 100 pounds each
more than if fed the same amount of
feed exposed to winter storms, and
counting that our twelve grown cattle
would be worth 81 per head more in the
spring, and ten young cattle 81 each
more, and we have 500 saved in a year
by the warm stable, and in six years it
would more than return the entire cost
of the barn. There ought to be little
credit in addition for the increased
amount and better quality of manure
which would be made in such stable.
Suppose my estimate is too high by a
half. and that it would take twelve
years to get the money back; still the
barn would be good investment But
when we consider the convenience Of
feeding in well-arranged stable. that
the cattle can not get the food under
foot and waste it, and that all the ma
nure is saved in the best possible con-
dition. believe the estimate Is a low one,
that the cost of the barn would be saved
in less than six year.
To build such a stock barn at the
price / mention will require light
frame. as both lumber and labor will be
saved by its use. With proper con-
struction and bracing no stick OF timber
larger than six inches square is needed
in a stock barn of this size or even
larger, for it is not the size of the tim
Der but the way it is put together
that gives the strength to a build
ing. There is a stock barn in my
county which has stalls for 40 head Of
cattle and horses, which is built of tim
Der of this size. For the small stock
barn the nail ties may be AKA inches,
except the ones which support the loft
floor; these should be Axe. The plates
should be Axe and rafters 2x6. The
Manager should be in the center, wide
enough for two rows of cattle to eat
from it At one end of the manager
there should be a feed room feet
square into which to drop hay or fodder
from the loft above. At one side of
this feed room you can locate a meal
room of the same size. and at the other
the stairs will go up to the hay loft,
and there can be smaller meal bin.
The manager should be foored with
dressed lumber so that hay can easily
be pushed along through it, or it can be
easily swept The floor onwhich the
cattle stand should be foot lower than
the floor Of the manger. and 1 would
make it Of concrete, with a manure
ditch two feet wide and six or eight
inches deep, and walk two feet wide
on level with the floor on which the
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