Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1911-08-25
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are not engaged in the actual filling of the soil as
a sole means of livelihood.
The evidences of energy, ambition and prosper
fly which are calculated to impress with their
full force only the person who returns to a region
after an absence of a score of years or a decade,
are to be found in various spheres. They are
most noticeable perhaps in the Institutions and
facilities which have to do with bread-winning
occupations, the increased size and improved con-
dition of farm buildings, the betterment of farm
implements and machinery, the upkeep of the
fences and the more satisfactory status of the
roads over which the farmer hauls his produce to
market. 1t is safe to say, however, that in no
division Of farm life has the twentieth century dis
closed new possibilities to the extent that such
expansion has been manifested in the architecture
and construction of barns and stables.
The barn has always been a most important as
set of the farmer or stock raiser. Society folk,
ignorant of the relative importance of things on a
farm, have been wont to criticize many a farmer
because he expended far more money on his barn
than he did upon his residence. From the stand
point of the farmer, however, there has always
been ample justification for such a course. A
barn represents an important business essential, a
source Of livelihood, whereas a dwelling is in con-
siderable measure if not a luxury at least a
vehicle Of comfort. Accordingly the farmer, If he
has the thrift and foresight and judgment for
which his class are proverbial, is apt to argue,
when setting up for himself, that it IS the part of
wisdom to procure the best possible facilities in
the form of shelter for his crops and stock and
to bide his time in indulging the longing for a fine
MUSE. Anu u II dQU6O, IL average rural mousse
wife, particularly if she was raised on a farm, has
readily concurred with her husbands view as to
the wisdom of thus attending to business first
and pleasure afterward.
Gradually it has come about, however, that in
none save the most newly-deveIoped sections of
the country is there noticeable that old disparity
between the appearance of the farm home and its
accompanying barn. The prosperity that has
come to the American farmer in later years has
been mainly responsible. With an opportunity to
derive something like his proper share Of the
profits of his vocation he has "spruced up things
generally around the old homestead. Like as not
he has invested in an automobile and a high
priced graphOphOne or q player-piano, but whether
or not he has gone to the limit of luxuries in that
direction he is pretty certain to have made the
farm home worthy Of his family and of his pros
porous condition-either charging or rebuilding
the old house or else putting up a new house that
is modern in every respect.
But while these other adjuncts have been catch
ing up with the farm barn it must not be sup
posed that the barn itself has been standing still
in the march of progress, if we may express it
that way. 1t is not SO much that the presentday
barn or stable is larger than its predecessor of a
decade ago-except, of course. in the case of large
estates or bonanza farms. On the contrary there
seems to be some tendency to reduce the size of
such buildings. This tendency, which is not yet
by any means universal, is explained by various
circumstances. For one thing it has become the
fashion to provide various separate storage struc-
lures and outbuildings which take care of some
of the farm yield for which space had formerly to
be provided in the barn. Then, too. the automo-
biles of the up-todate farmer o. 3cday take up less
space than did the various carriages, buggies, light
wagons and carriage horses of the farmer in pro-
pOrtionately easy circumstances some years ago.
But IL country barns have not necessarily been
following the example of city skyscrapers in grow