The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-05-13
A Mammoth Barn.

Albany, there is perhaps none possessing
oreater interest to the horticultl raj, cattle
breeding and dairying public-whether for
It's natural beauties of location and topo-
GRANNY. for the taste and skill with which
these opportunities have been improved,
for the enlightened enterprise which char
aeterizes its practical management, or for
the numbers and superiority of is cattle
than the long famed Ellerslie, the residence,
from 1912 till his decease in lSI OF one
Of natures noblemen, William Kelly, and
more recently of Hon. Levi Parsons Nor
top. FIX Vice President of the United States.
The place comprises thousand acres, ex-
tending a full mile along the east bank OF
the river, and running south from Rlne-
cliff Station on the n. Y. c. x ii. X. X.
r.. 50 miles above New York. About
half of the area is devoted to ornamental
and pleasure grounds, woodland. buildings,
roadways and the like, the other molety
being under cultivaiio., chiefly in fodder
crops-grass for pasture and hay, and In
dian corn for ensilage-intended for the
sustenance of the largest Guernsey herd
in the world, a herd now numbering lS0
of the finest of their breed, alike In pedl-
gree. in individual points, and In actual
achievement at the milkpail and the churn.
To accommodate these cattle in lifting
auarters-co to them, convenient
to those who care for them, creditable to
the owner, and most imposing to the be-
holder palatial barn has just been COM
pleted. and forms now the chief object OF
of interest on the place, not even excepting
the cattle themselves; for while to the I'M
trained vision of many persons one COW
looks very much like another, 1t needs only
the most casual glance of the most inditf-
erent visitor to show him how very greatly
this mammoth structure-which would
make one OF the grandest exhibition halls
in the country-differs from other barns IN
glory.
The building is practically 297 feet long,
80 feet wide and 80 feet high; and that it
includes-beside three five hundred ton
slices (43 feet deep, tool and engine rooms,
grain bins, laboratory, bathing room, and
ample hallways-120 good-sized stalls and
46 large "boxes,' on the main floor. An
equal number are placed in the basement,
which is light, dry and airy, its bottom
being level on one side with the ground
las indicated by the west elevation), while
on other side its windows open into a de-
pressed area that can be protected by a
series of trapdoors from the incoming of
SNOW and rain. The bays above the stalls
can accommodate 400 tons of hay, without
covering over the middle hallway; and
the grain rooms will hold twenty carloads.
The south door, looking up through the
centre of the building, is the largest struc-
ture of its kind that we remember, much
larger than would be necessary to admit a
freight train.
1t is not only, however, the dimensions
of This barn that deserve notice. Its entire
construction is graceful and solid. The
cows are secured by the Waters Fire
Escape device, hanging chain that gives
entire freedom of movement to the head,
and makes it possible to liberate them all
in very few seconds; and they are con-
stantly supplied with fresh water. A
twenty-five horsepower engine gives ample
motive force, and is supplied with steam
from separate boiler-house at consider
able distance. Another engine pumps
water from Il deep well, raising it In
tower to such height as to furnish the
great pressure of 20 pounds per inch at
the barn.
Ofthe grand Guernsey cattle that occupy
- Il
this place of course a chief feature Is the
great bull Midas 20O3, particularly hand
some animal, noted prize-winner, and the
getter of excellent stock Near him stands
an assistant hardly less famous, Safeguard
1890. OF the females it may be briefly
said that GO cows and beifers have CON-
pleted seasons work in the herd with an
average yield of 6,1199 lbs. of milk ia
year, the highest being 1876 lbs. Eight
cows have produced over 5000 lbs, 10
over 1000 lbs, 33 over 5000 lbs. The
yearly average of butter is one pound from
a little less than II lbs of the mixed milk
of the whole herd. The cows have never
been forced, but are given what grain they
are able proftably to turn into butter.
Aside from such increase of the herd as
can be spared, the only form in which its
product is marketed is that Of butter; and
the butter-making building like the barn,
a model of its kind, and an instructive place
to visit. The milk is first purified by
Hill erator, a machine which has been
subjected to the severest tests (such as try
ing it with milk kept for hours near rottlng
manure, and with milk thoroughly tainted
by garlic), and has been found TO work
wonders, removing every suspicion OF bad
smell or taste. The cream is then separa-
ted by De Laval centrifuge, cooled in an
Evans & Heulings "Star" both these in
ventions giving entire satisfaction, as seems
always to be the case with those who use
them). and finally churned, at $50 in sum-
mer and 42o in winter, in Diamond Bal
ance churn, comparatively new contriv-
ance.
One more department at Ellersiie remains
for notice, the broiler-factory, so to speak
n group of buildings from which are mark
eted the immense number of 10000 artif-
eialy incubated chicken per annum, the
weekly hatch averaging 500. Ten incu-
bators are kept running. About half the
eggs put in hatch out alive-some twenty
per cent. of them being found clear and
therefore infertile, on Gambling, about four
days after starting, and three-fourths of
the chicks 90 safely through the brooders,
and are sold as broilers at eight to fourteen
weaks from Matching, weighing then about
A pound and half. We were interested
in the simplicity of the brooding arrange
ment. 1t consists merely of pen, by
Is feet, across which, near one end, run
four inch-and-a-half hot water pipes covered
with a board and screened on each side by
a flannel curtain. Forty-eight of these
pens are arranged in an Lshaped building,
l5s feet long one way and lOS feet the
other; and as each pen accommodates
hundred extremely vivacious and voracious
little chicks-which pass from pen to pen
as they grow, the height of the top board
of the brooder varying from Al inches for
the babies up to foot for the graduating
class-the animation of the scene may be