The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-06-23
Wise Farm Building,

Last winter we listened to an address
by member of the Vermont State
Board of Agriculture in which the folly
of building great castle-like barns was
we'll shown up. In late Hoard's
Dairyman John Gould frees his mind
on the subject as follows;
"The present moment is suspicious
for saving few words about barn
building, especially TO the dairymen.
Two barns are being built in this local
ity, by dairymen, that, with the present
outlook and our best information, will
be castles in the air, and not adapted to
the real wants of Their owners. One of
the barns is built upon stone founda-
ton, the cellar being dug into the east
bank of slope, with fully two-thirds
of the walls on three sides below the
natural surface. In the very nature of
things, the stables will be darkened,
and sunlight will be practically all shut
out. Built as best they can be, these
stables will never be as warm, light and
dry as a stable should be for cows.
Above this stable will be the barn it.
self, huge castle designed to hold "a
lot of hay" With modern ideas of
feeding, what does dairyman need of
of such an AFFAIR." Its chief object now
is to make show and absorb money.
This man referred to will never keep
to exceed thirty cows. Had he built
instead, an all above ground stable,
balloon frame, with sixteen-foot posts,
and double ceiled it, and put in just
enough windows, having the building
longways north and south, and built a
$50 ton silo at the north end, and used
the overhead of the stable for storage
for what little hay he would need, the
demands for an up-to-date COW barn
would have been complied with, and
81, 500 left in his pocket to credit to
prosperity. The old barn could have
been cheaply put in shape for grain
barrack and the like, and the COW barn
been special receptical " for cows.
A well-covered barn, built of two by
six-inch studding, ceiled on the inside,
and a sixteen by thirty-six-inch window
for each two and one half cows, with
the natural soil for floor, grouted, of
course - and the flooring overhead,
built 30 as to give nine feet in the clear,
will not freeze in the winter, but be
light, dry and comfortable in every
way, if the man is anything of barn
keeper.
II
The cost of one of these constable
barns is but trife more than the
foundation for castle barn. The feed
ing of dairy is now being understood,
and the old plan of moving one-half of
| Gov 70 r,atx uintor food onH
cavern barns in which to store it, and
cribs to hold all the grain that the farm,
and parts of three others, would pro-
duce, have been dispensed with in the
practices of the studious, wide-awake
farmers; and two big boxes, and the
produce of few acres now furnish the
food for the winter dairy. The great
barn is not called for upon the dairy
farm. l have my serious doubts if a
stone-walled basement barn can be
made the best, or even average, place
in which to stable the dairy. The man
with the semi-cellar stable, is the one
who is talking so much about sunshine,
open air, and exercise for his cows.
Now are not these facts in the case?
Mr.. Sanford's plan was more simple
than the above. He would have sta
BILE just high enough to accommodate
the cows, i. e., give them sufficient air
space and have no storage room above
them. He would have the cows face
outwards, have lots of windows so that
the sun could shine in, and draw out
the manure daily. The stable would
thus be cows living room, and not a
storage place for either manure or feed.
This suits our idea. We could get the
feed to the cow in some way, and with
as little trouble as possible, using car
or box on wheels to carry it. Let us
look for moment at the philosophy of
barn building. We want barns for two
things, to keep cattle and to store their
feed. Now these two purposes are
very diverse one from another, but this
has been entirely lost sight of by most
barn builders. Stock needs to be kept
warm, needs light, needs air. Their
feed does not generally need to be kept
from frost, does not need light nor air.
So to build 40xS0 frost proof barn to
keep 40x15 stable warm, is piece of
extravagant folly. Mr.. Sanford's idea
is the correct one. Build stable for
your COWS as warm and light as you
can. Then build shelter for their
feed with good roof and walls as
tight as you can afford, but with no at
tempt at making it frost proof. You
will, of course, want silo; that should
be frost proof or nearly 30. The great
points in barn building are saving all
the manure, making the cattle healthy
and comfortable, and sheltering their
feed. You do not need fortune to do
that. But it does take small fortune
to build one of the palaces which are
called barns, and are the envy of all
who see them, unless they are posted
as to the folly of the huge structure.
Make things as comfortable and con-
venient as possible, but do not waste