PRACTICAL ARN PLANS ALBERT R. MAJSffiJ LIBRARY AT CORNELL tnMTVERSITY COftNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 055 507 333 1^ Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924055507333 RADFORD'S Practical Barn Plans Being a Complete Collection of Practical, Economical and Com- mon-Sense Plans ot Barns, Out Buildings and Stock Sheds :: :: :: EDITED BY WILLIAM A. RADFORD President of The Radford Architectural Co., Author of "Radford's Encyclopedia on Carpentry, Building and Architecture," "The Steel Square and Its Uses," "Practical Carpentry," "The Radford American Homes," "The Radford Ideal Homes," "Rad- ford's Modern Homes," "Radford's Artistic Bungalows," "Radford's Artistic Homes," "Cement Houses and How to Build Them," "Radford's Combined House and Barn Plan Book," "Radford's Stores and Flat Buildings" and the best authority in the country on all matters pertaining to the building industry. , PUBLISHED BY THE RADFORD ARCHITECTURAL CO No 185 E. Jackson Blvd., No. 178 Fulton St. CHICAGO, ILL. NEW YORK, N. Y. PREFACE The farm building department is given not only in the interest of the farmer, but because every one is more or less dependent upon the soil and is consequently directly or indirectly interested in the prosperity of the farmer. There comes a time when every business man and most other men want to build either a house, or barn, or both. It is the province of this book to offer suggestions. Plans are necessary to avoid mistakes. It is just as easy to secure good plans as to build after the ideas prevailing in the neighborhood, probably advanced by some carpenter who has had little or no experience outside of his own town. Barns as well as houses are built or should be built for a specific purpose and there are fundamental principles which are vital if the best results are to be obtained. It is not always necessary or desirable to build expensively. It often happens that an inexpensive or even a cheap structure will answer the purpose just as well, but this book does not countenance the building of unsightly houses or out buildings. There are essentials to be built into farm buildings that cannot be seen after they are finished, but these essentials must be there or the buildings will not be right. Drainage, foundation, ventilation and economy are four requisites that have received special attention in compiling the material for this work and they are four of the worst neglected principles when ordinary farm buildings are planned. Drainage and foundation are easily treated to fit each case, but ventilation is less tangible, although it is equally important, while the study of economy has no beginning and no legitimate ending for it embraces not only the construction of the building, but the use of it ever after. Even a small farm building is worth very close attention in the planning, location and building because of its appearance and the labor it entails in its connection with general farm economy. In the arrangement of the book the first point made clear to the reader is the need for the structure. Naturally what the building is wanted for should be first made plain. Then the construction is followed to completion when the building takes its place in the farm economy. It is a book, the author believes, which will make interesting a subject that farmers have always before them, and enable them to find a design for any kind of barn or farm building that may be needed. It is a pleasure to contribute anything to add to the beauties and charm of American farm life, and in that spirit this vol- ume is given to the agricultural world. Copyright 1909 BY Thb Radford Architecturai, Co. Chicago Department of Dairy Barns LARGE DAIRY STABLE— A loo Price of Blue Prints, $15.00. HTHE careful housing of dairy cows is re- *■ ceiving systematic consideration as never before. Investigiations have been conducted by men who are thoroughly conversant with the subject from a prac- tical as well as a scientific standpoint. Government milk inspectors, backed by public opinion, have established a thor- ough system of inspection. City milk sup- ply is now traced to its source, the cows examined thoroughly for condition and health and the stable for cleanliness. If incompetency or indifference has led the* dairyman to disobey the state sanitary re- quirements he is not permitted to ship milk until he satisfies the inspector that he has mended his ways. This course was made necessary by the rapidly increasing volume of business which is conducted by such a cosmopolitan class of people; com- prising as it does, all grades of producers from the most progressive farmer down the line of small dairymen to the ignorant huckster. Cleanliness is required by in- spectors, first, last and all the time; thus, making the right start, for cleanliness, leads to many virtues. A man who is par- ticular about all utensils, his wagon, stable, cattle and himslf, will not tolerate a poor stable or an unhealthy cow. He may not understand the science of fer- ments or disease germs, but his milk sup- ply will be good and wholesome, because he robs harmful bacteria of the dirt upon which they thrive. In our northern climate, warmer stables have for years occupied the attention of our best farmers and stockmen. Bank barns were the outgrowth of a desire to provide comfortable stables that were both warmer and better. The conven- ience of having all stock under one roof, tucked carefully away from the cold, with plenty of feed overhead ready at all times to find its way to mangers and food racks by gravity, proved very alluring to ambitious farmers all over the country. But animals housed in these expensive dungeons were not happy and showed their discomfiture in watery eyes, luster- less hair, hot noses and hot, feverish breath, with fretful, quarrelsome actions together with their inability to grow or fatten. Too frequently cattle thus hous- ed were attacked by bovine disease germs, which were materially assisted in their work of destruction by conditions so ex- pensively though unintentionally provid- ed. Stockmen thought the trouble was caused by too great a change in tempera- ture by allowing the cattle to go out for an airing or for water each day; to rem- edy this, water buckets were added to the stable outfit and the stock confined in an abominable atmosphere for weeks at a time. Atmospheric conditions affect animals differently. The heavy breeds of beef cat- tle are usually phlegmatic in disposition, paying little attention to ordinary disturb- 115 ii6 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS ances; these suffered less in consequence, though it was noticed that they did not benefit from the quantity and quahty of feed as they should. Milch cows of a highly nervous organization are more sus- ceptible to incipient diseases caused by ob- jectional surroundings than any other domestic animal. Not until progressive scientific men spent much time and money in investigations and experiments was the trouble traced to its true source. Analyzing stable atmosphere led to the detection of harmful bacteria in incredu- lous numbers. Scientists engaged in the work were slow to give out the result of their first investigations, thinking that the conditions under which they were working might be abnormal. Prospecting further cient to be of use. Sunlight is destructive to all forms of harmful bacteria; therefore a stable should admit the direct rays of the sun to every stall if possible. An eastern model dairy stable combin- ing all good qualities while eliminating ob- jectionable features is shown in the ac- companying plans. The stable may be built at a low cost, is warm in winter, cool in summer, and sanitary and hygienic at all times. Location. The proper location for a dairy stable is the first consideration. Good air, good drainage, plenty of sunlight and an abun- dant water supply are all essential feat- and while endeavoring to learn the cause they found the conditions in these cellar stables particularly favorable to the pro- pagation of stockmen's worst enemy. Harmful bacteria delight in a dusty atmos- phere, especially when it is impregnated with moisture ; when a share of the damp- ness comes from the moisture laden breath of animals that are obliged to breathe the same air over and over again, bacteria con- ditions are complete. " Bank barns are always damp and always dusty; owing to their construction they never admit sunlight in quantities suffi- ures Fresh air and drainage may be se- cured by selecting an elevation ; protection from cold winds by means of a tree belt or a high tight board fence. Suflticient water may be obtained in most any situation by a powerful windmill- There are other con- siderations such as convenience to the pas- ture fields and a short haul from the fields in which soiling crops are grown. Pas- ture, however, receives less consideration than it did a few years ago. North of parallel 42 there is an average of only six weeks of good pasture. Summer droughts sandwiched in between late spring an^ PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 117 early fall frosts are responsible for this condition, so that a good many farmers in the east depend upon soiling crops a great deal more than they do on pasture. A runway consisting of least a quarter of an acre for each cow is necessary, but the fields may be more profitably employed in raising cultivated crops. The question of drainage is a very important one. If the soil is naturally dry and slopes sufficient to carry off rain water no elaborate sys- tem of tiling will be necessary, but if there is any doubt it is better to be on the safe side. Grading. In laying out a stable a great deal of after work may be saved by a careful sur- vey of the grade. Manure should be re- moved from a dairy stable promptly every day and carted at once to the fields. By the use of a manure carrier and a spreader this way of managing is cheaper as well as better than the old fashioned way of piling in manure to be hauled away at a few stakes of different lengths comprises about all the tools necessary. Excavation. The excavation for the walls may be just deep enough to go below frost. For con- crete or cement walls make the trench just the width necessary to hold the wall ma- terial but after the trench is done make a rounded recess all round the edge near the bottom to hold a course of three inch tile. This answers the double purpose of carrying off surplus water and preventing rats from undermining the wall. Rats will dig down at the side of the wall until they come to an obstruction, they will follow the obstruction along close to the wall but never think of digging outward to get around it. The ends of the tile should ter- minate in the main drain just below the trap. Walls. In some parts of the country stone is plentiful and farmers prefer to lay up a stone wall but generally speaking a con- sro/Me£ fiffAl or COhT Bfi/fN some future time. In making the grade the stable floor may be placed high enough to run the manure carrier directly out over the spreader. Calculation must also be made for carrying off the water used in flushing the gutters and in washing the dairy utensils. The intake for ventilation is another consideration before commenc- ing work. In order to lay out the ground right a general working drawing giving the floor plan and profile is necessary. Any one can work to such a plan by having a few simple instruments. An A level and Crete wall is cheaper and better. The ma- terials may be put together on the ground and dumped into the trenches with un- skilled labor. It is only necessary to look carefully to the leveling and finishing of the job. For this purpose a two inch plank staked carefully in position with the edges even with the top of the wall forms a guide both for leveling and for thickness. Open- ings in the plank may be left for doorways and boxes built around the size and shape to properly hold cement sills so that when the wall is finished the door sills will be ii8 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS complete and the whole thing will be in one piece. The Floor After the walls are finished the grading for the floor comes next in order. The pro- file shows the relative position of the in- take for fresh air, the floor of the feeding alley, position of the cement mangers, in- clines of the floor in which the cattle stand, the gutter and the walk behind the cows. Besides the cross section the mangers and gutters incline with the length of the sta- ble. In order to locate all these points a good many grade stakes are necessary. They are set carefully to measurement and driven down until the tops come right for the grade. It is easier to do this work be- fore the building is erected. One point to be rembered is that the wall should not extend much above the floor for the reason that dampness will collect on the inner side or warmer side of the wall especially in winter. Also the iron >pipes designed to partition the stalls and support the ceil- ing should be imbedded in cement when it is fresh. Superstructure It is cheaper to build barns and stables low because lighter material may be used in their construction. A dairy stable should have a low ceiling to facilitate ventilation. Seven feet is high enough for a ceiling but eight feet looks better if the stable is long and where there are a good many cows to- .»• J-,:. f>if ■a c^£y-/fTioAi or srff/.L.'S gether there is no objection to an eight foot ceiling. A good deal depends on the ' number of cows kept. A stable may be built on this plan to hold twenty-four cows or it may be made long enough to hold one hundred. The principle of ventilation de- pends on the circulation of air. Warm air is lighter than cold air and it naturally goes up. In order to ventilate a stable we must get animals enough in it to wafm the air. There is little or no circulation in a cold room. For the ventilation. to work right the temperature in a stable should not go below 55 degrees. This plan takes the air in at the center in front of the cows where the cows may breathe the clean fresh air from outside before it becomes contaminated. The hot breath of the cows goes to the ceiling, spreads in all directions to the sides of the room while it loads up with impurities and finally settles to the floor at the sides of the stable where it is drawn oflf by the ventilators and sent out through the roof. In order for the ventilat- ing system to work right the stable must be practically air tight around the sides and ceiling and the doors must fit well. There is a light sill six by six bedded in fresh cement mortar on top of the walls, two by six studding seven feet long toe- nailed into the sill and a two by six plate PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 119 spiked on top of the studding. Building paper is nailed to the studding both inside and out. The inside is lined with matched ceiling without bead. This is to eliminate all cracks and joints as far as possible. There are no cracks and places for dust to lodge as all stable dust is bacteria laden. In like manner building paper is tacked to the ceiling joists and under the paper a light matched ceiling is nailed so that the whole room is smooth around and there are no projections or shelves of any kind to hold dust. The stall partitions are as light as possible for the same reason. Door and window frames are made flush on the inside and just a light four inch casing turned to cover the joint. It is better to use a great deal of care in laying thf. build- ventilation to keep the loft cool. The out- side of the stable is boarded up with pat- ent siding and a light box cornice makes the finish at the eaves. The ventilating system is shown in the cuts. It pays to to put on an eave trough whether the water is wanted for use or not because the drip from the eaves will cause dampness and this should be avoided. Because the build- ing is low a light roof is sufficient. Two by four rafters are heavy enough if well supported by cross collar beams. The Silos In this plan the silos are placed at the end of the stable. If the stable is long how- ever it is better to put the silos in the mid- dle. It will save steps at feeding time. It ing paper around all such places to prevent air openings. It is not intended to use the loft over this stable for storage or any pur- pose but it is better to build the loft so that it may be swept occassionally to clear out the dust. A window is placed in each gable for the purpose of causing sufficient is better to have two small silos than one large one. From sixteen to twenty feet in diameter is big enough for any silo. The surface may then be fed off every day and the silage kept fresh at all times. The milk room is at the side of the silo. The floor and sides are built entirely of cement and I20 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS the room has a white matched ceiling. It is provided with an open drain that con- nects with the main drain outside of the building. The milk room contains a sep- arator, scales, Babcock tester and a shelf to hold the smaller utensils and a porcelain lined sink for washing dishes. Outside of the milk room is a rack to hold the cans where they are turned upside down every morning in the sun. Beyond the silos and milk room is the barn where the roughage , is kept and the track from the stable runs across so the feed may be brought by an overhead track carrier. The silos are at the north end of the building. The manure is taken out through the south doors. The cows are also let in and out of the south doors. This style of stable should be built north and south so that the sun will shine in at all of the windows. Silo Construction The cheapest form of a silo is the round stave construction. It is about as good as any, too, when it is thoroughly well built from well seasoned lumber; in fact, it has been thoroughly demonstrated that the stave silo is a success. In New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania the stave silo is almost universally used. The^ do not last as long as some others. Probably the average life of a stave silo is somewhere between five and ten years. But a farmer can tear down and rebuild because the ma- terial is comparatively cheap and there is not much of it. In some parts of the coun- try there is a prejudice against this form of silo. Some claim that the silage is not so good, but it would be difficult to sub- stantiate this claim. Of course, to keep silage properly in any kind of a silo it must be air tight. If a stave silo leaks at the joints the silage will suffer, but the same may be said of any make of silo. Some of this prejudice comes from the dairy farmers who formerly had exper- ience with stave silos which were construc- ted by putting rough planks together with- out beveling the edges, but the way staves are made now with bevels carefully cut to fit the circle and provided with heavy iron hoops, and plenty of them, there is prob- ably no better construction. Some stave silos have round tongues and grooves. This is better than a plain straight bevel, but it is not absolutely necessary. The ends of the staves where they butt to- gether are fitted with an iron tongue let into a saw cut in each end of the abutting staves. A convenient height for a silo of this kind is thirty-two feet made from sixteen foot stuff, but some staves must be eight feet long in order to break joints. Most stave silos erected are bought from some manufacturer who has a patent on some little contrivance in connection with their manufacture, but any farmer can order the material and build his own silo if he wishes to do so. The mills will cut and bevel the staves and tongue and groove them to fit any circle desired, but it is necessary to understand all the little de- tails and see that they are properly worked 3ut. A good many of the patent silos have an iron framework to hold the doors. This is an advantage inasmuch as wood gets damp and swells, but any carpenter can bolt two timbers together in such a way as to make a good framework to hold the doors, and the saving in expense is con- siderable. The doors may be mad'e loose and calked around the edges with tow or the soft parts of corn stalks makes very good calking material. In fact, there are a great many different ways to manage if a person is determined to have a silo, but it is well to remember that the doors are a particular part. The framework must be solid and there must be ample space between the doors for the hoops. Figures on all Cuts Correspond. A — Drain tile. B— Gas pipe ij^ inch for stall parti- tions, chain ring and ceiling supports. C — Ventilation intake. D — Stable floor where cows stand hav- ing an incline of two inches. E — Cement manger having an incline of % inch per ten feet. F — Cow chains. G — Manure carriers. PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 121 H — Car tracks, should be near the ceil- ing to give plenty of head room. I — Hood ventilator, tail on opening side with counter weight to prevent friction, and allow it to turn easily. This hood does not touch the pipe but turns on a spindle which passes through the upper cross piece in the pipe and is socketed in the lower cross piece about three feet down in the pipe. J — Ventilator shaft drawing foul air from near the floor. K — Register for use in hot weather to draw off the hot air when the stable doors are open. L — Register that may be partially closed to regulate intake of fresh air. M — Register to regulate the amount of draft allowed to foul air. This is one of the most important features of the sys- tem as the warmth of the stable as well as the quality of the air is controlled by it. O — Galvanized iron gutter. DAIRY BANK BARN— A125 An old fashioned dairy barn is shown in the ventilation. To have good air in a cow plan (A125). There are a good many such stable it is absolutely necessary to have a barns still in use in Wisconsin. Those system of ventilation. You can stable four K I s using them say they are satisfactory under or five cows together and depend on certain conditions, chance openings to provide them with One good feature about this stable is oxygen, but you cannot depend on Prov- 122 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS idence to keep your cattle alive in a large way. One advantage of having the two stable unless you assist a little bit. manure gutters in the middle is that a cart A good many dairymen prefer to have may be driven through to remove the ma- the cows face outward. This is a matter nure. If there is any other good reason k X^/JL r ' I fxvj-l UiUJ^ A''^irPPORTlNG SHIUbi Mll-K ROOM i-r ^ 7 \ £>TA1.1-S> eJ-vT-rCf^ T=»AS>S>Ac:iE. «>I1L.F =>UT='T=OT=?TINC:i SHElTTi CORN '^ i c_ ygii2- _1 CROSaS :Sjr.CTIONI foods and feeds for both family and live stock. With rope-and-pulley device a bar- rel of apples or a bag of potatoes may be lowered in or drawn up from this cellar. Elevation and plans give general features of the structure, showing that the barn is intended to stable thirty-eight cows and there is provision for a small corn-crib, feed room and milk room. The idea is that later when the business grows to demand it these rooms will be removed to an out- side building, or separate buildings, and the whole floor space of this barn given up to the stable proper. TWENTY-FOUR COW STABLE— A210 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 It will be noticed that about one-third of the ground space of this dairy stable build- ing is taken up with creamery, delivery room, feed room and work shop. The reason for this is that there must be no tinkering work done in the creamery or delivery room. These two compartments must be kept as pure and clean as possible, or the brand of milk required by the boards of health cannot be manufactured. Unless there is a shop for tinkering fitted with a desk and a cupboard to hang extra cloth- I40 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS ine these things will accumulate in the being taken to use only the best materials crfamery and delivery room. Then when and to put them together quickly so the the inspector comes around, the business of that farmer is classed as second or third job will harden at one time and set to- rate according to conditions as he finds gether iri one great stone. Above the con- ^^^^ ^ Crete wall the structure is of wood, but the The wall and floor of this dairy barn is lower story is plastered outside with c built all in one piece of cement, great care ment. All windows are carefully fitted PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 141 keep out the cold in winter and they are supposed to be kept clean at all times to let in plenty of light. There is a difference of opinion among dairy farmers in regard to the center drive- way between the mangers, some claiming that this space is greater than necessary and that it adds unnecessarily to the width and consequently to the cost of the build- ing, but those dairymen who feed their cows in the stable in the summer time as will accommodate a large feed box on wheels which may be pushed back and forth to the silo and feed mixing room. Especial pains is taken with the parti- tion between the cow stable proper and the creamery room. It is made solid and the door is carefully fitted and supplied with a spring to keep it shut in order to protect the milk from stable odors. Another im- portant feature is to front the stable to- wards the prevailing winds so the draft ;=j4J-5ACi::. £r/yTT2zfi~ Ll± ~S7 \/.i vS yt^^/^CZTAZ^ J^7T/t^e:\M^'y n CC yv/ ~sr,A I I I ff ff SZTtt^WT well as in winter like to drive through with a hay-rack loaded with green feed brought directly from the fields, because they can feed the cows so quickly and with the least possible labor. The feeding may be done in the same way in winter by bringing roughage from the storage barn, as the same driveway .^is^cjJ will be from the creamery end out through the stable. Some dairymen make the mis- take of creating a draft the wrong way and it makes a lot of difference in the scientific production of clean milk. When a man goes to the expense of building a thoroughly good dairy stable he expects to manufacture high grade milk and to secure from one cent to five cents per quart bottle more than those farmers who work along in the old fashioned way. But unless all these details are considered and carefully worked out he will have di- fficulty in getting his price. PRACTICAL COW BARN— A208 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 This cow barn is designed for a cold cli- tect the stock from the cold, and at the mate and a special effort was made to pro- same time give them proper ventilation 142 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS and a continuous supply of fresh air by the floor and carry it to the ventilators means of air ducts built in the walls, which on the roof, which are controlled by a cord, receive the air near the ground level and regulating the flow of air as desired. ^OUTH r^EWOTVOA/ conduct it to the inside of the barn where it enters the stock room near the ceiling. Other ducts exhaust all the foul air from The barn is located on the slope of a hill so that the hay can be hauled directly into the upper floor, and the walls of the stock PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 143 room are built of rubble stone 18 inches thick; this, together with the hay above, makes a warm stock room. The silo is located at the center of the south side, where it is convenient for feed- ing and also protected from the north winds. The shelter shed is also located on the south and at right angles to the WA'Vi-RVW.'iii-^ main barn, so that the stock is well pro- tected when out of the barn in severe weather. As will be seen from the draw- ing, this barn is 40 by 100 feet, and con- tains stalls for forty-six milch cows, be- sides loose stalls for calves, dry stock, bull, etc. At the west end is a feed room with bins connected by spouts to larger bins on the floor above; also stairway to the up- per floor, and on the east end is a manure pit covered by an extension of the shelter shed roof. The cross section clearly shows the gen- eral arrangement of stalls, mangers, gut- ters, etc., all constructed out of cement laid on solid ground. The stall partitions are built up out of wrought iron bars and pipes, leaving nothing to get out of order or decay. The wood superstructure is constructed out of plank, and the roof is self-supporting, without posts or purlins, by each set of rafters braced, forming a MCJT ELEmrtO/V continuous arch from one sill to the other. This roof gives an enormous capacity to the hay room and is well braced against sagging and wind pressure. The exterior of the barn is sided with matched siding and the roof is of shingles, making a very durable and good looking building, and at the same time a barn that can be built within a reasonable figure. FORTY COW BARN— A209 Cost of Blue Prints, $25.00 A large modern dairy farm building of exceptional completeness and convenience of arrangement is presented herewith. In the one building are grouped the accom- modations for the three branches of dairy farming: There are, first, sanitary stab- ling for forty milch cows, twelve dry cows, two bulls and numerous calves; second, improved storage capacity, accurately fig- ured, for ensilage, grain, roots, dry fodder and bedding sufficient for that number of cattle; and, third, a well-equipped milk cooling and shipping department. For a barn of ^uch large capacity the ar- rangement in this case is very good. The general form of the building is that of a cross. The stanchions are arranged in a double row on the ground floor of the long 144 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS cross member; the feed storage section, extending back at right angles to this, joins it at the middle. There, two large silos are located with the feed mixing floor between — thus having a very central loca- tion. The grain bins are next the silos, filled from the outside through inclined chutes. In that way the reinforced con- crete floor was not weakened by trap door openings through it. This design provides for the rain water from the roof to be conducted to two fno/^T ELcyMriof^ extending 28 feet from the ground floor to the plate and provided with a continuous cup conveyor, operated by a small electric motor, for elevating the grain. buried cisterns, from whence it is pumped to a large tank overhead, as needed. In the front of the building, completely separated from the barn and stable, are ■ rvi ■ ■■I . - . -. .[.^^JYlUa -"-' "'■'■ ""■ i.MU.|......,»f J A feature in connection with the root cellars is worthy of notice. They are lo- cated on the ground floor under the "barn floor" or elevated driveway. They are the ofiice and milk handling rooms. As will be observed from the plans the ice house is very conveniently located to the cooling room. A detail drawing of the PRACTICAL BARN PLANS I yjKirjut3A K Id K i i 4- ■J •0 N 5 146 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS milk cooler is eiven showing the ice bunk- Calcium chloride is a substance which Tr and compaSrnt for thf milk cans in increases the capacityof brme to mamtam cross section. All the walls and covers of this chest are made very heavy, built up in a low temperature. The calcium chloride brine circulates in the pipes and is cooled 4#— MMAV rr«.C layers of insulating material to keep out the heat. It might be interesting to ex- periment with the calcium chloride cool- ing medium in connection with a refriger- ator made like this. CrCiW •~ST/\ L.LfS by a mixture of chipped ice and salt pack- ed around the pipe coil in the ice chest. It is one of the more scientific arrange- ments for the economical production of cold storage that works especially well where conditions are all favorable. SOUTHERN COW BARN— A207 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 The cow barn herewith illustrated is de- All rules of architectural proportion and signed for a warm climate with the view of design, as far as books are concerned, have obtaining good results as an investment, been laid aside. The barn being located at PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 147 a place where good returns are required ond floor, or hay room, is of wood con- and no architectural beauty called for, it struction and covered by a flat roof. is a success because it meets all its require- There are two rows of cow stalls ; the "^^ts. cows facing each other, and between them The walls of the basement or stock room is a hay rack built of one inch wrought iron ^.^_. are built of cement blocks and the entire pipes set six inches apart, the bottom of surface being of cement will keep the room the pipes being imbedded in the concrete cool in warm summer weather. The sec- floor and the top of the pipes run into a 148 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS wood rail. This feed rack, extending about trough formed into the cement floor for three feet above the hay floor, makes it feeding other foods and for watermg. This convenient for filUng and at the same time is a very good arrangement, not only for ■z^^ n A I! jill _ ^^,f£*S^— 11) ' I 1 r .---V- «ii \ fJ.A.fV O^ ^Vtlyi/^i^pOK, K ,&. r- av -"Wit £3 :^ i^^i C4£7'J7> U. ^ £3 c-r Vi. iM ,£s- ^- — — ^a^H iJm^ TrercD/io uft 1i 4 rt»AtW5CT:C WMtU. COAfPaST F/^ •■ T-aggp T-KOui -V "C ^^ = ^ ../ OOfc' ' srjtAi J -c^ -/■fmt-t jwpn> ^-.^Bgrr i4. 1/ A y-c J \ ■Z—i, Ziil. / -Wi/T KOO / Y CAt-TjrALL 1^ 1^ _2:Z'>1 ■ ^i- KLAj^ oA CKOuf^fi -r-t-oof^ gives it additional capacity so that it will its compactness, but as all the hay that is hold several days' feed. At the foot of each dropped by the cows falls into the trough side of this feed rack there is a feeding and is afterwards picked up by the cow in PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 149 place of being tramped on and wasted. outside walls, and these are also construct- The cows are separated by iron pipe rail- ed of wrought iron pipe, so that there is .■- .■■■y i ^T ^jL j— ' •■ ' ■.'■* ■: '--, ■^.■ ' ■i''."\'.M» ■■■ ' , ■ir ■ /r ^rlH.-.'- '•■ ■ ■■ ■. •■ . - I ' . V '• ■' - 1 — i — ' ,'*f.i.^ .'-'. ' ■) ■ esnrs^^r a*oc _ c*3'>f'rM TS. TB^ ings which are imbedded in the cement floor and fastened to the hay rack. As will be noticed in the cut, the cows are fastened with chains which are fasten- ed to a ring placed around a vertical pipe each side of the stall. J The stall floors have a gradual slope to a shallow gutter at the rear of the stalls and this gutter has a gradual slope to a drain tile to carry out all liquids to a cis- tern under the compost pits at the end of practically no wood work about the stalls the barn. Calf stalls and loose stalls for or floors which can rot or get mouldy. dry stock and bull are arranged about the This makes an ideal barn for its purpose ISO PRACTICAL BARN PLANS and can be constructed at a reasonable price, and is practical for southern states where hay is the principal feed. For feed- ing silage this would not be so practical, as it would be too inconvenient to place the silage into the feed trough, unless the cows were first taken out of their stalls. Again it would not be well for a northern climate where the barn is constantly guarded against cold weather and a per- fect system of ventilation and fresh air in- lets are very necessary. MODEL DAIRY— A180 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 We are here illustrating a dairy build- heat, water, light and power for the vari- ing which is very complete and answers ous purposes required on a large dairy and i(iE //aj/j£. >■ " •"' isA/i^y awtejiVfKZ tie TOOT IK»t wouJ^o TKLOoTf r^A/ ^:i^ zt^my all the requirements for a country dairy, stock farm. The building consists of thr«»e It has waterworks, power and electric parts ; the left hand wing is the ice storage light plant of sufficient capacity to supply house and also contains two cold storage PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 151 rooms for butter, cream, milk, etc.; the central part is the dairy containing the churn room, bottling room, washing room, etc., and the right wing is the power and pumping station. This building is built on a concrete foundation, above which it is of the regu- lar balloon frame construction. The walls are of two-inch by six-inch studding sheathed on the outside with matched sheathing, then papered and covered with drop siding. The space between the stud- ding of the dairy and wash rooms from the floor to the window sills is filled with concrete and then cemented on the inside forming a cement wainscoting as well as strengthening the building. Above this cement work the side walls and ceiling are ceiled with beaded yellow pine ceiling. The roof is of moss green stained shingles and has large ventilators, which makes it hygienic and adds to the appearance. The ice house is insulated with several thicknesses of hair felt, air spaces and matched sheathing and insulating, water- proof paper. The power house has a basement which contains the boilers, which are sunk below the ground level in order to admit steam pipes to be run underground to the other farm buildings for heating purposes. The pumps and dynamo are run by an engine. ANOTHER MODEL DAIRY— Ai 76 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 A dairy building is located east of the cow barn and so arranged that the milk can be brought from the east door of the cow barn directly to the receiving vat in the dairy building. The milk cans are un- loaded from the truck on to a platform. in order to maintain a uniform tempera ture in the building and to prevent the ad- mittance of any impure air. From the re- ceiving vat the milk flows by gravity through the various machines and appara- tus without having to be handled by any from which the milk is poured into the re- hands until it is sealed in bottles, not only ceiving vat from the outside of the build- for economical, but more especially for ing, thus avoiding the opening and closing sanitary reasons, of outside doors, which is very essential From the receivmg vat the milk flows ^52 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS dUTTZn /f'^a^ £0} TIM" /rr r ] L J jt-sxxsa. ,fi iozx/t ' J-3ZK/r F^/}r77?/fAf ■j^K^'A Wil Jt-S2XS1i. noo/f /a^ya^zi^/^y PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 153 into the separator and after the milk has been separated from the cream it is again mixed together and then flows through the cooler and into the bottling machine, which is located in a pit in the center of the milk room. The filled and sealed bottles are then placed into wooden delivery boxes for immediate delivery or else stored in the refrigerator ready for use. In order to obtain a purely sanitary milk much depends on the care and clean- liness of the various receptacles, therefore too much emphasis cannot be placed on the washing and sterilizing. All the bot- tles are thoroughly washed by machines, which can do the work very thoroughly and rapidly by revolving brushes, etc., and after a thorough washing they are set into the sterilizing oven, which is equipped with steam coils and steam jets. The butter room is located to the left of the milk room and is well equipped with the most up-to-date churns and also con- tains the testing machine and other appa- ratus. The refrigerator is divided into compartments, and is of the most ap- proved construction. The construction of this building is of the usual balloon type, having a stone foundation under walls of 2 by 4-inch studding, which are sheathed and sided on the outside. Between these is placed a double thickness of heavy building paper. HOME DAIRY— A206 The very best butter is made on farms where the women thoroughly understand the business and have the proper facilities. When the milk from good healthy cows is run through a cream separator as soon as possible after milking and the cream cooled to the right temperature and kept in clean, pure air and churned when it is just old enough and not too old, you get the very nicest butter that skill and energy can make. Such butter, if shipped regu- larly to consumers in large cities, will bring a bigger price than the best cream- ery butter made. It is no more work to make butter right than to make it wrong; in fact there is less work because you have a proper system and that always helps. The farm dairy may be very simple but is should be by itself. You cannot make gilt-edged butter in the kitchen. There are too many odors from cooking and sometimes from tobacco smoke. Cream is very touchy when it comes to odors. You can insult cream with a bad smell quicker than any other food product and when it is once contaminated no cleansing process can possibly eliminate the trouble. The dairy may open off from the kitchen but you must keep the door closed. You will need some means of heating this room in winter time, but during the spring, fall and summer it will be warm enough with- out, and if it is on the north side of the building it will be cool enough most of the time without using ice, but ice is cheap enough to have and use when you need it. This dairy is intended for from ten to thirty cows. If you have more cows you may need more room, but that will depend I ■«■ 1 ^Hrzzi: II —■ 5f — ^ to some exten on how often you ship the butter. The intention is to pack the butter in one pound prints or five pound crocks and to ship in neat little crates holding two or three crocks each or in boxes hold- ing ten or twenty prints. If you have the proper storage and the butter is made to keep you can hold it in your store room until you get ready to ship it. Department of General Farm Barns AN OHIO BARN— A146 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 A ^'^?^t? °^ ^?^" *^^* ^^ ^^^y ^^^^ "^^^ threshing machine is set first on one side ^ ^ in Ohio IS shown in plan (A146). A and then on the other for convenience in SA/a eicyyfnoM S^/fAf peculiarity of this style of barn is what is getting the grain to the machine The flor^?^ som" tf the'Tar'^ ^'"^'S^ Sridge^om fhe bank to'thrgtund lo^. Hoor. m some of the larger ones the must be stronger than common barn »54 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 155 bridges because it spans the space between the barn and bank and it leaves a runway for cattle along the bank side of the build- ing. In this plan the cows have no stalls but are stabled in an enclosed shed with a feeding rack the whole length of the side so arranged that it may be filled from the mow above. Several removable racks for feeding grain may be placed anywhere in this shed and a water trough with an ever- lasting supply of good pure water will hardly freeze in here. There are many points of convenience with the barn proper. The entrance to the barn being overhead the whole ground space around the barn is left free to han- dle stock. Horses, cows, sheep and hogs may all have dififerent quarters and be kept separate very much to the advantage of the stock and at a great saving in time. The dampness which is a bad feature of most bank barns is obviated in this plan because there is a circulation of air all around. One of these barns was built on a hilly farm in southern Ohio on a site some dis- •s/0£ CLey/TTWA/ or s/ia/a s/f/?/\/ about a barn built after this plan, one of which is the facility of getting all around it. Gates, fences and retaining walls for the bank offer opportunities for stock pens in almost every corner without interfering tance from the house and about twenty feet higher, in fact the house was on one hill and the barn on another with a small ravine separating them. Two round wood- en water tanks were placed near the top 156 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS of the barn and these tanks were kept sup- plied by means of a hydraulic ram work- ing from a running spring of pure clear water back among the hills. To facilitate cleaning the tanks one at a time, they were connected at the bottom with a short pipe. In this oipe were two globe valves and between the valves was the outlet pipe to the house and to the stock watering troughs. The pipe that brought the supply from the spring entered the tops of both tanks in a similar way. Two valves in the cross pipe permitted water to flow into either tank or both tanks as desired. This arrangement of feed and outlet the other tank could be continued in use. In practice it was found desirable to clean both tanks twice each year because if left longer they were inclined to become slimy. About seventy-five head of cattle and horses were kept on the farm besides oth- er stock and their thrift was due in great measure to the unlimited supply of good water within easy reach at all times where they could drink out of cement troughs and cast iron buckets in convenient places about the stable and nearby pasture lots. Besides supplying the stock an inch pipe was carried under the ground to the house, which was in this way supplied with hot and cold running water in the kitchen sink ii>' o- Hfty /?ffCi( eot/- sf/co A>/^3.Sffe€ f 9 9 1\ TTT- -3»«- /='^~M/iee HOff:3£ ST/ILLS \ 3E A f^e£D /poo/f r7/?sr rioojf Pin/\/ T ff>/>v ^ 1^ I pipes made provision for emptying and and bath room. There was also an outside cleaning either tank at any time without hose tap for sprinkling the lawn and wat- interfering with the water supply because ering the flower beds. Another hose cock PRACTICAL BARN PLANS ^57 in the carriage house supplied a hose brush and only left to get married and work on for washing buggies. a farm of his own. Farm hands are quick It might be noted that help stayed along to appreciate modern improvements. OPE A/ /A/0 /A/ rLOOff /s-o- Jgg'-O .-/r-o- »fly /fOfi^ Sti/JLL 6ff/fA/nOO. ' /.fffiCS BJf^A/ /%00/f iH/7Y flOhr >6 / G/f/fA//T/fy ca-i on the farm year after year. One man Farmers who plan right can keep help and grew up on the place from a chore-boy make money from their work. LARGE BANK BARN— Ai66 Cost of Blue A bank barn is very desirable where a suitable location can be found but some bank barns are very inconvenient and oth- ers are damp and musty because the barn is not built right. It is not absolutely nec- essary to build a bank barn just because there is a hill on the farm. It is much bet- ter to pick out a plan which is suitable for the location than to blindly follow the lead of some other farmer. A barn that is all right on one farm may be all wrong on the next farm, so much depends on the use Prints, $15.00 made of it, the kind of farming and the lay of the land. This bank barn is 30 feet wide by 70 feet long with a basement full size. The walls of the basement are of stone and the upper structure is heavy frame work braced in such a way that a horse fork could be used in the peak with a track clear from obstruction expending from one gable to the other. There is no objection to making this wall of cement or concrete if stone is 158 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS scarce or if for any other reason a farmer prefers cement construction. This barn is placed sideways to the bank and has two bridges leading to what is commonly termed a double threshing floor on a level with the ground on the upper side. There are two doors on the opposite or south side of the barn but they are designed merely as openings for light and air as occasion requires and to run the carriers out when threshing. It is intended to build the straw and to support them with good solid posts with good stone foundation or thoroughly well constructed cement footings solid enough to prevent settling. A good many such barns give considerable trouble in this respect but not necessarily so because it is easy to make them right 'in the first place. In all stock barns, but especially where stock is kept in the basement, ventilation is of prime importance, This barn has V '>0 stack in the yard on this lower side of the barn. The basement is partitioned off into sta- bles for six horses and twenty head of cat- tle as shown in the basement plan. In building a barn like this it is neces- sary to use heavy timbers over the stable two ventilators extending through the roof at the peak. For convenience in feeding there are two chutes running down from the hay mow to the feed alleys on the stable floor. The double threshing floor leaves consid- erable room for storage of farm imple- PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 159 -4 i6o PRACTICAL BARN PLANS !U»- PRACTICAL BARN PLANS i6i i6a PRACTICAL BARN PLANS .o .OC PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 163 O/Xg [64 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS ments which is very important on most farms. Where the land slants like this the barn yard usually is dry but probably a little tile draining helps every yard. We seldom see a barn yard dry enough in the fall and spring. It is well to consider all these side issues when selecting the site to build on. BALLOON ROOFED BARN— A143 Cost of Blue A good sized barn with a basement sta- ble, a good threshing floor and a large stor- age for fodder is shown in plan (A143). The wall may be made of stone or cement according to circumstances. Eight feet head room is enough for the cow stable but usually nine feet is better for a horse stable. This barn should front the south and the root house should be, if possible, in a bank on the north side and the feed alley so arranged that a feed car may be run into the root house on a level. It probably would be better to construct Prints, $20.00 this case there is a good deal of outside wall clear of the bank and the windows may be made large. Balloon roofs are becoming quite pop- ular in barn construction, but some of the first ones were not made strong enough and heavy winds wrecked them. This roof however is braced by the gables from every direction which makes the structure a strong one. The threshing floor is open in the center to the roof but it may be floored over at the ends if so desired. The intention is to £LEy/rrwfi/ ■s£cr/o/v a board partition between the horse stable and the cow stable, but the calf and bull pens would be better without a partition because the air will circulate better and there will be more light in the cow stable. One objection to the basement stable is the difficulty of lighting it properly. A good deal depends on the exposure. In work the horse fork from this floor; to drive in with loads from the bank at the north and back out. It is a good plan to leave sufficient open- ing to run the straw carrier or stacker up to the mows above. On most farms it would be desirable to have a stack in the yard but it is just as well to put some of PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 165 the straw back in the barn. A balloon roof works splendidly for this purpose. The stacker may be turned to blow the straw to the furtherest end of any gable. It is a good plan to pay careful attention It will be noticed that two hay chutes are provided to carry the hay down to the feed alleys. Hay chutes are a great conven- ience but they are draughty things unless doors are provided. In putting in the up- riooff /'//W orcA^rrir s/f/fN to the ventilation of any stable. The air in a basement stable is seldom as good as it should be. There are two air shafts in this plan with openings near the floor. per floor timbers and joists it is a good plan to make them continuous by building them up with two inch plank so as to tie the building together in both directions. i66 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS Remember in building this barn you have ary than the one shown in the plan. In that no upper ties and you must support the case it may be extended to cover the whole roof from the frame below, but this is eas- floor in the granary wing, which should ily done because of the shape of the build- make the granary about twenty-two by ing. thirty feet and the hay shoot would pass Some farmers may need a larger gran- down through it just the same. PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 167 This large stock and dairy barn was de- signed for a large Canadian farm and has many good features worth noting, both from the builder's and the dairyman's point of view. The shape of the building was developed with the view of giving the best shelter to the stock. From the points of the com- pass, as shown on the floor plan, it will be seen that the wings of the cow barn and the young stock barn are so situated as to keep the north wind oflf the stock when it is let out for exercise during the winter months, and at the same time giv- ing them all the sunshine. The building is also arranged to be convenient from the paddocks, pastures, etc., allowing the stock to approach their respective stalls without .having to be driven across unnec- essary driveways or through a series of gates. The building is built of wood, on a foun- dation of concrete, which is put in place by excavating the trenches the exact width CANADIAN BARN— A183 Cost of Blue Prints, $250.00 with drop siding over a layer of thick tar paper. After the concrete between the studding has become hard metal lath are put in place on the interior face of stud- ding and over the concrete, which is then plastered with cement mortar, making a cement wainscoting around the walls, which makes a perfectly sanitary barn. The concrete filled walls help greatly to keep the barn warm in winter and cool in summer, as well as to stiffen the structure against heavy winds. The granary is located at the center of the north side and contains eight large hopper bottom bins for the storage of grain and feed. The bottom of each bin is connected with a spout leading to an elevator boot in the basement, which ele- vates the grain to a revolving head so that the grain can readily be transferred from one bin to another or onto a truck or wag- ons. Some of the bins also have spouts wagon-bed height above the floor for feed- ing purposes. The main driveway of the CMCf^ZH^ *vow3z: //oa-is. iv>fu^ COv^ *AJ?A^ and depth of the wall and then the con- crete is dumped and tamped into the trench, thus avoiding the work and ex- pense of planking for concrete forms be- low grade. Above grade the concrete is tamped between planks well fastened in place in the usual manner. The concrete wall extends up to the floor level where the wood construction begins. The space between the studding from the floor up to the window sill level is also filled with concrete after the walls have been sided barn goes through this granary and con- tains a combination dumping scales with a hopper under the floor spouted to the elevator boot for loading grain into the bins. This granary being located near the cen- ter of the barn is very convenient for feed- ing the stock and adds to the exterior ap- pearance of the building. The basement of the granary is used for the storage of roots for the stock and can be equipped with a kettle for boiling and mixing foods, etc. 1 68 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS PRACTICAL BARN PLANS r 169 I -r 7«T jnw f / \ I ri^g — ^ I ^ § lyo PRACTICAL BARN PLANS The cow barn contains 57 cow stalls and arranged with a feed alley running through the" entire length with the man- gers on either side, so the cattle can be conveniently fed from a truck or a trolley track system suspended from the ceiling. The cows stand facing each other and the mangers are continuous, constructed out of concrete which forms part of the cement floor. The stall floors are of concrete cov- ered with plank, which can be taken up and cleaned or renewed when desired. The manure gutters have sufficient fall to drain all liquids to one outlet in the center which is connected with a catch-basin, and also contains gate valves so arranged that while scrubbing the water can be switched into a sewer. The passages back of the cows are of good width for milking and bedding the stock and trucking ont ma- nure to platforms built at the end of each passage outside of the building. The ven- tilation is well taken care of by ducts in the walls which carry the air to the venti- lators on the roof. The young stock barn is located to the west of the cow barn and contains six box stalls for bulls and calves. These stalls are constructed from heavy wrought iron gas pipe, having three-inch pipes for cor- ner posts and for top or header rail, and i^-inch pipe spaced 6 inches apart for the stall partitions; these pipes are set upright with the bottom ends well bedded in the concrete floor and the upper ends screwed into 3-inch header. The gates are also of pipe construction and have self-closing locks and hinges. There are 28 single stalls with swinging stanchions for calves, one-year-olds, and dry stock similar in arrangement to the stalls of the milk cows only not so wide, as no milking room is necessary. The wing also contains a hospital stall which is isolated from all others by solid walls and has all side walls, floor and ceil- ing finished with cement which is imper- vious to moisture and can be readily dis- infected. Opposite the hospital stall is a watchman's room for a man who can at- tend any sick stock during the night. The silos are centrally located for con- venience in feeding and filling, as the sil- age cutter can be located in the central feeding room and thus be operated in all kinds of weather during the ensilage sea- son. The silos are constructed of stud- ding spaced 12 inches on centers, sheathed on the inside with two thicknesses of 11/2- inch by 6 inch sheathing bent around hori- zontal and then yeneered on the inside with hard, vitreous paving brick laid in cement mortar, each brick being tightly pressed against the sheathing so that the silage pressure cannot force it out of place. The exterior of each silo is finished to match the balance of the building. The silos have a concrete foundation which is flush on the inside with the face of brick lining, and being excavated down to the footing increases its capacity by about 50 tons. The floors are of concrete, dished to the center, and connected with a deep seal trap and drain. South of the silos is the horse barn, which contains 17 single stalls on one side and 9 single and 4 box stalls on the other side, giving it a capacity of thirty horses. Each stall has an outside window for light and ventilation. These windows are about seven feet from the floor to avoid draft on the animals and protected by a wire mesh guard. The stall partitions are of wood to a height of 5 feet 6 inches, giving a good circulation of air and light. The stall floors are of double thickness of i^ inch by 6 inch flooring with several thicknesses of roofing felt laid in hot tar between. All stall floors are slightly sloped down towards the driveway and have cast iron gutters with perforated cast iron covers and connected with catch- basin and sewer. East of the horse barn is the chicken house, having a capacity of 350 fowls, di- vided into seven compartments of 50 each, so arranged that the chickens get the south sun and protected from the cold north winds. East of the horse barn is the shed for wagons and farming implements with a door into the horse stable, so the team can PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 171 be taken directly from the stable into the shed and hitched up without having to go through a barn yard. There are many other conveniences about this building, but we must refrain in this article for lack of space. Suffice it, therefore, to conclude in stating that the building is so constructed that any depart- ment of the same can at any future time be extended or added to. AN OCTAGON BARN— A150 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 This is a cement silo with a barn built around it. The arrangement is a good one for feeding young cattle to make them grow, rather than to fatten steers for the market. The silo is sixteen feet in diam- eter and thirty-two feet high with a twelve inch cement wall and a pit that reaches three feet below the surface of the ground. ery direction. Every side is both a brace and a tie for the next side. To prevent any possible pulling away from the silo, rods connect all the floor joists and all the rafters. This makes a circle of three quar- ter inch iron at the floor and again at the roof, but if the different sides of the build- ing are well tied together there will be no (it Three feet is deep enough to give a good solid foundation and it is deep enough when you come to pitch the last silage out of the bottom. The frame-work of the barn is very light. The silo is used to support the mid- dle and the barn really is braced from ev- £LC^/ITION getting away even if the iron rods are not used. The octagon construction has been worked out in this plan in preference to a round barn because the construction is cheaper. The sills and other timbers are straight. The joists usually are cut square. 172 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS at least there are not very many bevels and when a joist is beveled it is only on one end and the other end is cut square. It is the same with the rafters. There is considerable room for straw The mangers being next to the feed al- ley makes feeding as easy and convenient as it is possible to have it. Perhaps no other barn construction can offer such ad- vantages at feeding time. The mangers FLOOR Pl/i/V and hay around the silo and it is easy to make places next to the silo for putting both hay and straw down into the feed alley. hold hay, corn stalks or other roughage and the bottoms are tight for feeding corn or ensilage. The feed room in front of the silo doors is boarded to the ceiling so that PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 173 ensilage enough for a full feed may be piled up out of the way of the ensilage cart. A packing box with large castors may be used for a silage cart or it may be a well built cart with heavy iron wheels and with hinged sides to drop over to the manger. There are four entrances for conveni- ence in getting out the manure and most of them will be used at times for letting stock in or out, especially if the barn is divided up in compartments for the differ- ent kinds of stock. Each post has a good cement footing as shown in the plan and the elevation shows the way the timbers run. There is no floor in the bottom except the ground as it is intended to let the straw and manure accumulate, but there is a good feed room floor as this is where the work is done three or four times a day. A silo surrounded like this must be filled with a carrier. A blast stack will not work well on an incline and it is not convenient to place the cutter close to the silo, but a good carrier works all right. EIGHTY ACRE FARM BARN— A2 11 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 A general purpose barn thirty-two by sixty feet with storage room overhead may be built on this plan. The idea is to pro- vide a barn that is suitable for a farm, say of eighty acres, where six or eight horses ing out. There is a manger between the stanchions and the outside of the barn with a rack to hold hay and there is a long narrow opening above this rack into the mow the whole length of the rack so that are kept for work and for breeding pur- hay may be put down from overhead and poses, and where there is a variety of cat- distributed as it is thrown down, which tie some milch cows and some growing saves once or twice handlmg when com- calVes and young stock. pared with feeding arrangements m some The cow part is partitioned ofif from the other stables. . , , u- j other part of the barn with stanchions fac- A manure carrier runs on a track behind 174 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS the cows and the same track is extended to run behind the horses with a switch to throw it from one track to the other as needed. Carrying the manure all out at one door leaves the outside of the barn clean on three sides which adds very much to the appearance. The main entrance is into an alley twelve feet wide which gives storage room for wagons, buggies, etc., and at the back end there are watering arrangements and a de- pression in the cement floor with a hole in it to carry off the water. In this depres- sion buggies and other rigs are washed and for this purpose it is a good plan to while other horses are so quarrelsome that they must have separate stalls. The feedway in front of the horses is narrow because it is not intended to store any feed on this floor, except in the corn- crib. There is a chute from the oat bin above with just a small box at the bottom to dip from. There is a lid to this box which shuts down in such a way that a horse could not lift it even if it should get loose and crowd into this narrow feedway. The corn-crib portion is boarded tight on the inside, but the two outer sides are slatted. There are small doors outside near the top of the crib to shovel the corn through and there is no inside door open- /^j^A/uTZ E- f-cx.^i I /T'^V^'^^^ L 7^^£a:> jfj.i.Biy foJfT ^ctfOT' T^ZLGOJ^ -p^^/s/ have either a force pump or a tank supply of water under pressure. There is a feed door in the side of each box stall which hinges at the top and may be lifted to put grain into the manger boxes. Hay, however, is poked down from overhead through the hay chute. There are four double stalls and four single stalls which is a very good arrangement because some pairs of horses like to stand together ing into the crib except from the feedway in front of the horses. Hay is put in from the front of the barn by means of a hay fork and oats are lifted to the second floor by a sling drawn up with a horse, one, two or three sacks at a time. This arrangement stands all the stock with their heads toward the walls, a differ- ent arrangement from most barns. When PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 175 the feed is put down from overhead there really is very little objection to an arrange- ment of this kind in a small barn and there is an advantage so far as the horses are concerned in that they may be unhitched from the wagon, go at once to the water- ing trough and drink, then find their own stalls without assistance from anybody. A long narrow harness closet with two doors makes a good place to hang harness so that there is no excuse for having it scattered around on pegs in the way. HAY AND GRAIN BARN— Ai 67 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 A long barn designed to hold a good deal of hay and grain is shown in this illus- tration. It is a timber frame covered with eight inch drop siding. The track for the hay fork is suspended from the peak by seven-eighth inch iron it convenient to fill the barn from either end or from both ends as occasion re- quires. There is a driveway crosswise through the barn at the center. This drive- way is floored with a two inch plank floor, but it is not necessary to floor the other SIDE ELEVATION LONCrrUDINAL SECTION rods and the track extends the whole part of the building except vvith round length of the building and projects several poles to keep the hay and gram sheaves feet at each end. This arrangement makes ofif the ground. Such a barn is intended 176 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS more for storage on large farms where don't require quite such frequent atten- considerable grain is harvested and hay tion as the other animals, cut either to feed or for sale. The cross center floor is intended for It is not necessary to have such a barn threshing, but there is no provision for near the other farm buildings. Many storing threshed grain. It is supposed that »' s ? ■ 1 &.. ,11 til' c= ; ,f- ;•'- 1 ll,'-' /.«•- ^ 1 t i 1 f * i 1 CWIVfWAV .-I- jti- 1 t ' 1 1 1, /*'» *... - 1 ^IX-lfC i y 1 jef!.~> ,*■* "'• ^— 1 , D«,,,J!,''t 1— i y i H i FLOOR PLAN farmers prefer to have it convenient to the fields because it is never used for housing stock unless it be sheep and they there is a granary near the house and oth- er buildings and it is better to haul the grain from the machine. PRETENTIOUS STOCK BARN— Ai 79 Cost of Blue Prints, $35.00 This pretentious stock barn is very com- plete and of an elastic pattern, so designed that its capacity can be increased by build- ing on to the gable ends and extending them out any distance that may be re- quired without afifecting the general ar- rangement or exterior architectural pro- portions in the least. The two wings to sort of court around the silo, admitting the sun, but obstructing the severe storms and giving shelter to the stock. The silo is well situated with reference to feeding, being in the middle of the cow barn. The cows stand back to back, which is of great advantage in cleaning out the gutters, as all the dirt can be handled from the center the right and left of the silo contain the driveway and carried to the manure pits young stock and horses respectively and to the right. To the left hand or west end face the south. These two wings form a of the cow barn is a large room for imple- PRACTICAL BARN PLANS '27 merits, wagons, harness cases and stair- ways to upper floor which contains grain bins, storage rooms for light machines vehicles, etc., and sufficient hay and feed room for all stock. This building has a concrete foundation with the concrete walls extending about 2 feet above the cement floor level in the stock rooms. This prevents any moisture from getting to the framework and also makes a very sanitary and durable build- braced roof which allows the free use of a trolley hay fork the full length of the building. The roof is of green stained shingles, of Dutch colonial architecture, and not only of a very appropriate design, but its shape adds greatly to the storage capacity of hay, grain, etc. There is an embankment driveway on the north side which admits hay wagons into the upper floor for the unloading of ing. The frame walls are constructed of two by six studding covered with tar paper and drop siding on the outside and tar paper and matched sheathing on the in- side. The lower story has two rows of posts which support the upper floor and also serve to hold the stanchions and stall par- titions. The upper story is of a single span. hay, grain, etc. The silo is of frame con- struction lined on the inside with paving brick, making it absolutely air tight and almost frost proof. There is a trolley track feed carrier hung to the ceiling of the lower story, which simplifies the feed- ing. The building, as the cut shows it, will accommodate loo head of cattle and nine horses. BARN NEAR ST. FRANCISVILLE, ILL.— Ai88 The accompanying is a medium large, plain and very serviceable barn on an eighty acre farm built at very low cost, the timber being furnished and most of the work being done by the farmer himself who owns a small tract of timber from which the logs were cut, furnishing all the lumber for the frame and siding. The barn is of red oak lumber undressed and unpainted. The frame is what is known here as the "spiked" frame, three two by eight inch plank being spiked to- gether, making finished timber six by eight inches. The barn is sixty by forty- eight feet with twelve foot driveway lengthwise through the center of main building and an inclosed twelve foot shed on the south stabling twelve dairy cows. There is a twelve foot open shed the entire width of the west end. It is twenty feet to the eaves of the main part, fourteen feet to the eaves of south cow shed and thirty- 178 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS five feet to the comb. The mow above cov- the walls, and having capacity for sixteen ers the entire floor, sixty by forty-eight horses. r j • r feet, and will hold eighty tons of hay. Hay The barn is on a foundation of natural is taken into the mow from outside east end from large door just under comb, and stone pillars with earth floor, and the building is constructed to fit the hill, which ■Hi it has modern equipment of track and hay- fork. Horse stalls are arranged on either side of the center driveway, the horses facing CROSS. s>e:ction slopes to the west, east posts being shorter and west posts being longer. There is a small corn-crib in the northwest corner, and two box stalls at east end. WABASH COUNTY, ILL., BARN— A185 A medium large barn on the 160-acre the community. It is a plain structure farm of Mr. J. O. Wood, of Wabash Co., with no sheds, and is ninety feet long by 111., one of the most scientific farmers of forty-six feet wide by twenty feet to the PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 179 eaves and thirty-seven and one-half feet to the comb. The frame work consists of sev- en bents placed fifteen feet apart. There is a driveway through the center closed with and this must be taken into consideration when planning to build. Some farmers when depending on local carpenters pre- fer to make a building higher at the sides double hinged doors at each end. The large mow above holds ninety to one hun- dred tons of hay which is taken up inside at the end of the driveway, the floor be- ing afterwards replaced and the section blown full of shredded fodder. One side below is used for horses and the other for cattle with mangers adjacent to driveway. It will stable fifteen horses and from twenty to forty cattle. Good ventilation is supplied by small doors on a level with the heads of the ani- mals. The barn is built on solid brick foundation and the frame is of sawed oak timbers; siding is pine ship lap and roof red cedar shingles. It was built in 1903 at a cost of $1,500, Mr. Woods furnishing timber for frame from his own forest and doing all of his own hauling. The only change he would make in building again would be to build four feet higher for greater mow capacity. This barn is unusually high at the sides. Boards twenty feet long for boarding up and down are not usually easy to obtain with a plain straight roof like this rather than to undertake a curb roof with the OROSZ SECTION extra skill and care in framing that such a roof entails. We show this barn as an old fashioned i8o PRACTICAL BARN PLANS type that has a great many advocates among practical farmers. There are res- trictions in barn building as well as other things. What suits one community or one farmer is not to be recommended for another and a great deal depends on the carpenters within reach. Almost any local carpenter can lay out a 'barn like drive through with a hay rack loaded with roughage from the fields for both cows and horses and the driveway is supposed to be floored over with timbers heavy enough to support a mow above. Openings are shown by the dotted lines for putting down hay and straw in winter and there is another opening in the center _ «_ . ■ ■ i MANGE .T5" I C 3Vv - = T/M .1- 5 3-^' +'-0 o GUTT -« I ^ > 1 _ -fO-O" this, take the usual handy men about the place as helpers and push the work along from beginning to finish without a hitch; when the same carpenter with the same help would be bothered to death with the intricacies of a more complicated building. There are more economical barns than this in regard to space because you lose a good deal out of the center of the barn with such a long driveway. On the other hand one half of the barn is devoted to cows and this driveway answers for a feed room to for the hay fork in summer when the barn is being filled. This center opening should be covered with poles or planks and hay thrown over it to prevent a draught. The ■ hay chutes should be boxed around and closed at the floor level with weighted trap doors for the same reason. One of the greatest objections to openings of this kind is the draught they create. Ventil- ation is absolutely necessary where a num- ber of animals are kept together, but ven- tilation does not mean a draught. YANKEE BARN— Ai 34 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 A style of barn that is often seen in New England is given in plan (A134). The horses and cows occupy part of the first floor, leaving a space in one corner that makes a convenient storage for farm tools. There is a driveway through this part of the barn and the door is large enough to get in with a hay-rack or a grain drill. The upper part of the barn is used al- most altogether for hay storage, the hay PRACTICAL BARN PLANS i8i J/Z7r £:L£ry7fTfON ^ °'0 .1 v4 — 'I rioo/? ft /IN OF y^A/f(£:£: b/f/^a/ l82 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS being lifted from the driveway by a horse- fork. It makes the stable much warmer to run the partitions in front of the cows and horses to the ceiling above. Unfor- tunately, too many farmers are careless about such things and their animals often suffer in large draughty stalls. This barn is thirty-six feet wide by sixty feet long, not very large on the ground for a farm barn, but the shape of the roof helps out very much in storage. It is floored over with the exception of an opening over the driveway and as this floor is only nine feet above the ground it leaves a very large loft. There are a great many Yankee barns without so many windows, but the win- dows are a great advantage. It is much easier and more pleasant to do work in a light barn and the animals do better. It is difficult to account for so many dark barns, except that the fashion was estab- lished when the country was new and win- dow lights were a great deal more expen- sive than they are now. Glass and sash e/vo £Lcyy9T/0N are just about as cheap as siding, there is no economy in building dark barns. BARN FOR A SMALL FARM— A160 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 This is a small barn for a small farm horses and about fifty fowls arid there is where four or five horses are kept besides room for a couple of breeding sows In ni nn nn B I m 1 1 a few milch cows and a little other stock, every stable a box stall or two comes in This barn was designed for 10 cows, five handy. A box stall is almost an absolute PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 183 necessity sometime during the year either for sick animals or because some special attention is required. The entire upper part is floored and there is an opening over the storage and implement room to pitch up hay, straw and other forage. This same opening an- swers for passing feed down to the man- gers from the feed lofts. There are windows all around this barn for light and ventilation; a provision that is too often left out when farm barn plans The floor of this stable should be of con- crete with the upper layer an inch thick composed of one part Portland cement and two parts clear soft sand but in mak- ing a floor like this is should be remem- bered that hard smooth cement is slippery and dangerous. The passage way may be marked off in diamonds with a regular tool which presses into the soft cement about one-half inch deep, but if the work is done on the farm and the usual mason's imple- ments are not at hand, a smooth rake han- ( = -:— E t = - ^ 1 — Pi/ZA/ or cAn// are made. It is not necessary to shut a die may be used by imbedding it in the soft barn all up dark, and it is not advisable to cement half its thickness. The handle do so. Windows do not cost much more should not be more than three-fourths or than siding and the sun and light let in seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, is a great advantage to stock. Unless the concrete foundation in this 1 84 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS driveway is of superior quality the cement top layer should be more than an inch in thickness, perhaps two inches in the cen- ter, tapering to an inch at the sides next to the stalls. In laying a concrete floor in any build- ing it is necessary to run a wall around the outside and this wall should extend below frost. If the ground is inclined to damp- ness, it is better to run a three inch or four inch drain tile all around the wall along the bottom and the outlet of this tile should be carried away from the building eight or ten feet and terminate in a drain. SMALL FARM BARN— A169 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 A neat little barn that is well propor- tioned and suitable for a farm of twenty or thirty acres is given in these illustra- tions. There is a threshing floor in the middle with wide double doors in the north side as well as in the south side making stalls. The cow stable side has a ceiling seven feet high. Cows don't get their heads up as high as horses do and they don't need such a high ceiling. Cows keep warmer in a stable with a low ceiling and if there is plenty of chance for the air to a good liberal passageway through the get in and out again they have good ven- center of the barn. tilation On one side of the driveway is a granary and stabling for three horses with a nine foot ceiling. A third of the barn on the other side of the driveway is made into a cow stable making seven good roomy It seems difficult for some live stock men to understand this phenomenon. The rea- son is the air circulates more freely when it is warm. The body heat of seven cows in this stable with a low ceiling will warm PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 185 > ■ I I IL ti z 5 < S Co I I- •5 C=- I — — * Or \ « J :she.to •PASSAG-E. \ QUTTEIT^ 3'.^-, CON st^ta; J_S ,MANG-E.K FELKTO Al-i-Jl-r H0|R3E 2 L..J MA | N&I.ff HOTiSE. ISTAIUL. ^ i iOf^ STALLlHO^ HOU-S: WAGON ^HE-TT) T w< — : — j»>K. i. \Z^C>^ crib, the corn crib being built over the hog compartment. The south half of this ex- tension is an open shed. Also an open shed extends along the east side of the main building and is equipped with mangers for six horses to be used when extra teams mows which hold about fifty tons of hay which is taken up from the center inside. North of the middle horse stalls and crib are the cow stalls, a three foot feedway running between them. The plan as given includes a leanto on i88 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS the north end which extends all the way across the end of the barn and is attached to the open shed which contains a box stall and a hog house and joins the northeast corner of the main barn. The shed for sheep is a good arrangement and it is plac- shed like this with a roof sloping to the north makes a very good shelter. In this case the feed rack is built on the north side of the shed and it may be filled by putting down hay from the mow over- head. The mow is not very large, but as 1 SHE.E.P LOT PL. AN OF F3AF?N ^ HOG UOT T=»L.AN OF BARK YARID BARN l_OT SCAl-E. SHE.TD ed right. Sheep have no business in the common barnyard; they are likely to get hurt and they are a nuisance at feeding time. Sheep carry their own blanket with them and they require no warmth from the building except at yeaning time. A the shed is only fourteen feet wide feed is easily shoved through from the main barn. This method of feeding is much better than putting hay down through an open chute amongst the sheep. TJiey crowd under the falling feed and they get PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 189 their wool so filled with chaff and seeds that it affects the sale of it, besides the dirt and dust is no benefit to the sheep. Keep sheep dry and have a lot for them to run out in during the day time. Drain- age must be looked to or water will ac- cumulate when the snow melts towards spring. As a usual thing it is not a good plan to.have a hog house in connection with the barn but on a great many farms only a few hogs are kept and they are allowed to run out on pasture most of the time., In such cases a hog house built into the far end of this northeast shed is permissi- ble, though not advisable. During these days of specialties it is better to have small movable hog houses than to let them come anywhere near the barn. The box stall under this shed will be found very useful to stable a horse or cow when they need veterinary attention, or to hold a mare and colt, or for two or three spring colts during their first winter. In fact it will be a better plan to build two V^^j^'i^"jSTbNn. T'lERS CROSS Si:CT»ON or three box stalls under this shed and make provision elsewhere for the hogs. BARN WITH ELL SHED— Ai 63 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 A small barn with an ell shed attached is shown in this design. The barn proper which is 28 feet wide by 56 feet long is in- tended to accommodate five head of horses in about one-third of the floor space leav- ing the other part for a driveway with storage for grain, hay and farming imple- ments. The whole of the second floor is given over to storage for hay or grain in the sheaf. A hay bay extends from the ground to the roof in one end of the building but a floor extends over the stable and the great- er part of the threshing floor. The thresh- ing floor section may be partitioned off from the horse stable to make the stable warmer. The shed forms an L running across the north and west sides of the barn yard, leaving the south side open to the sun. This arrangement breaks the north and. the west wind and provides a comfortable barn yard for winter. Stalls for 12 cows are built in the north TxT "S. K °0 h. igo PRACTICAL BARN PLANS shed by putting two cows in each stall. This shed has a cement floor built like a sidewalk and the floor extends out under the projecting roof which comes over a few feet into the yard forming a protec- tion against rain and snow. It is something that every barn yard The other part of the shed is open to the weather on the east side looking towards the barn, an arrangement that makes about as comfortable a barn yard as pos- sible to obtain without roofing the whole thing. This little barn with shed attachment should have because there are times when is not expensive but is more convenient the yard is wet and muddy in spite of ev- than some larger structures. The cost is V Nk H/ HV N O "'"6Ttt y'liii i'mL> i i cry precaution. A wide roof dripping into within the reach of any farmer although a barn yard is objectionable but the drip he may not have more than 20 acres of from this little short roof is insignificant, land. A transverse section is shown giv- PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 191 ing a good idea of how the building is put together and there is no waste of tim- framed. It is a strong frame that is easily ber. feeD/N& ftooci I Con STAtL /.D a«4.. atct^iT 1 t; ■» •1 'iP'"^ ^^--•' SECTION THROUGH SHED GENERAL PLAN. i Hay Bay nzz: THOtSHirtO TlooA """"-^ ... 1^ ' I ' [I ■ '. "^ — !l House Bfifin I 18 O' It is possible to arrange a barn like this with sheds that will make a better appear- ance on the farm and house stock better than some expensive barns. CATTLE BARN— An 5 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 A medium sized barn to accommodate eight cows and six horses is given in plan (A115). The size on the ground is thirty- two by_ forty-four, which is not very large for a farm barn, but it is not intended to be a large one. The first floor is divided into three parts; the horses occupy one, the cows another and the middle section, fifteen feet wide, is left for general pur- poses. It answers for a feed room, storage for a wagon or two and general barn pur- poses. The second floor covers the whole building with a couple of hay chutes to let down feed and straw to the horses and cat- tle. It hardly pays to work a horse fork in a barn of this size. The stuff may be put in by hand from the outside through doors that open down to the floor. There is no waste space in this plan, every foot is made use of to the best advantage, and the barn will be found very useful on farms 192 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS r jijcr -yp f-sr ATAfO Ji," ^=ie.ArA^.< /^^.oo^p I f ^\ /Y- r/voi^/f a Q Q D o /r/LOQj^ PL/iAf or //QRnCTlON either end, the openings being provided with pairs of swinging doors. Corn-cribs 194 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 195 are built in two corners as shown and they are properly ventilated. Runnihg full length of both sides of the barn are self-supporting six foot sheds which allows full ventilation of the stables during summer through the open doors, but protection against both sun and rain. The barn will stable eight horses and twelve cows, the mangers all facing the long feed or driveway. The general ap- pearance is imposing. The cost is $1,800, Mr. Risley doing his own hauling and fur- nishing the frame timbers from his own woods. CONCRETE AND WOOD BARN— A2 13 Cost o£ Blue Prints, $15.00 Design of a practical farm barn suitable The basement also contains a room for for a farm of eighty acres where the farm- wagons and buggies with a wash floor de- a J>/0£L zr ^. £: \// S^ -i\)'.:r- /^ -30 »— ■yJJA/VA^ jsessa'sk; _e W50 4 •J ^ <0 ,-j ^| •7 f r 1 US 5 1 er wishes to keep a dozen cows and five or six work horses in the basement with stor- age overhead for hay and other roughage. 1 q: 1 ft: Q w _ ^ ^ ^ 1 ^ 1 fy ^ 1 AT -kT- \ The standing floors in the stalls are cov- ered with planks which of course are re- newed occasionally, but the stall bottoms, partitions and cement mangers are there to stay. Horses do not gnaw such parti- tom of the stable out through the roof. The cross section shows the cement floor with piers and footings in profile and the cement work is indicated on the different plans and elevations. cr I 1 Department of Horse Barns HORSE BARNS FARM buildings serve their purpose best when especially adapted to the specific use required of them. Horse barns should be different from any other building on the farm. The health and com- fort of horses should be the first consid- eration, but convenience in attending to their w^ants and requirements, makes a close second. All horse stables should be well ventil- ated. Every farmer knows that there is a great difference in stables in this res- pect. Some stables are so built that you would rather keep out of them if possible because they can't be kept clean. The smell of ammonia is always present and when the doors are shut it is very dis- agreeable. Imagine shutting a valuable horse up in such an atmosphere at night and expect to find him in good condition in the morning. Horses are the most ex- pensive animals on the farm and the most susceptible to disease; hence, the first con- sideration in a stable should be to pro- mote the health of the horses. A horse stable should be cool and airy in summer and it should be warm and well ventilated in winter. The floor should be made in such a manner that it will not absorb the liquids from the manure, and there should be no crack to let these liq- uids down underneath to ferment and des- troy the air in the building. Stable ceil- ings must necessarily be high enough to permit a horse to get his head up. Horses are warm animals, that is they contain body heat enough to warm a stable when conditions are as they should be. Before starting to build put a little time on the study of ventilation. Read up on the circulation of warm air. Don't depend on others because they might not understand the particular conditions you are dealing with. It is well enough to ask advice, but get the information from dif- ferent sources so that you may be able to sift the quality of your instructions suf- ficiently to keep the graijn and discard the chaff. Don't blindly copy a stable that some one else has built without carefully considering whether it fits your require- ments. A horse stable that works all right for one farmer is all wrong for another, because his horses may be larger, or has more of them, or he handles them differently. Some farmers have a lot of horses that they press into service in the summer time and turn them out in the yards and sheds to winter. Such farmers usually raise horses to sell and have more than they need at all times. Other far- mers keep just what horses they need to do the work. They keep four horses or six horses the year round and they have no intention of altering their usual cus- tom. But in either case a man can ar- range a stable for a certain number of horses and build it accordingly. In cold weather a stable big enough for six horses will not be warm enough if only 197 198 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS two are stabled. If for any reason the stable is too large it is better to fill it up with cows in the winter for the reason that you cannot have ventilation without heat. On general principles it is more satisfactory to keep horses in a building by themselves and it is but little extra expense to do so. When possible a horse stable should contain a carriage room that is reason- bly free from dust. Every man has or should have the ambition to keep a rig for the road that is decently clean. He owes it to himself and his family to provide a respectable turnout. A farmer's family depends for change and recreation on the opportunity to get away from home by means of the horses. They are judged to a very great extent by the apperance they make. You cannot get away from the fact that a person's social standing in the community is largely arranged for them by the opinion of others. No man is independent enough to stand alone. A man's usefulness in the community de- pends largely upon the appearance that he and his family make on dress occasions, and the appearance in turn depends, very much on the horses, harness and wagons that they use when driving on the public road. PLAIN HORSE BARN— A161 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 A plain straight-away horse barn with ten single stalls, five box stalls, feed room, harness room and vehicle room with a wash platform in the center is given in this plan. There is a driveway through the center wide enough to admit a load of This barn will easily accommodate fif- teen horses and it will hold feed enough to supply them for a long time. The building is thirty-seven feet wide by six- ty-eight feet long. It is set on a stone foundation with two rows of stone piers hay or a load of straw, if so desired, but there are doors opening outside in the ga- ble to pitch in hay and straw, either by hand or horse fork, so it would not be nec- essary ordinarily to drive inside with a bulky load, but a good passageway be- tween horse stalls is a great convenience anyway. ^ supporting the floor joists and posts which run to purlin plates. There is a large vent shaft running from the stable ceiling to and through the hay mow with doors for throwing down hay or fodder as well as for ventilation. Grain in sacks can be hoisted up this ventilator shaft and conveniently dumped into feed PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 19$ bins which have hopper bottoms and spouts leading to the mixing room below. In the driveway at one side of the mix- ing room door is a water supply pipe and watering trough with a hose connection to supply water to the wash room on the floor of the vehicle room. The stalls are floored with a double thickness of oak flooring one and three- quarter inches thick slightly sloping to cast iron gutters, which run the entire length of the stall room on each side of the driveway. The first thickness of these stall floors is laid in hot tar, then two thicknesses of tar roofing felt is put on being well mopped over with tar, and this covered with the upper thickness of oak one and three-quarter inch flooring. Where a great many horses are to be fed overhead feed bins are a great conven- ience. The bottoms may be made hopper shape as shown in the plan, or they may be level. A hopper, of course, is best, but with a flat bottom a little accumulation of grain around the edges at the bottom is all that remains when the grain stops running down the spout, and flat bottom bins are cheaper. The main entrance doors are both wide and high. Unless the door is large enough it is sometimes difficult to get out. The door must have a good height because you want room for a carriage or a top buggy. We all have had experience in catching a buggy top on the lintel of a low door way. It seems to be the proper occasion for saying things. No builder likes to have such remarks made about him. There is a good row of box stalls. It is difficult to plan a decent sized box stall in a small stable. They run into room too fast. Nothing looks so comfortable for a good horse as a roomy box stall. If the horses had their way about it there would be more box stalls, but it really requires about three times as much room to stable horse in this way. No man begrudges the room, but most men don't like to put up money enough to enclose it properly. The ideal arrangement for stabling a horse is a big box stall with a good sized window for light and a door cut in half so that the upper part may be left open dur- ing the daytime to let the horse look out. A box stall shut up tight is a prison for a horse, they like to see things as well as other folks. Some box stalls are fitted with rubbing boards. They consist of planks about two inches thick turned edgewise to the horse and fastened to the sides of the stall just low enough down so the horse can't rub his tail. A box stall needs no floor and there should be no feed rack or manger. A box on the ground to feed oats is all the 200 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS manger necessary. The hay should be put It is quite common to see the inner walls in at frequent intervals in small quantities of a stable in winter white with frost. The placed lightly on the floor or bedding frost wouldn't be there if the stable was against the side of the stall. This way of feeding has often cured horses of chronic indigestion. In building a stable it is a great deal better to find out all these little details and build accordingly. There are several reasons why box stalls are better than standing stalls with mangers. A horse loves his freedom. To understand this it is only necessary to watch a horse when you take the bridle or halter off. One great defect in horse stalls as you ordinarily see them is lack of ventilation. dry as it should be. It is not necessary to put in an elaborate system of ventilating pipes in a small stable. The windows and doors are sufficient if they are managed right. The breath of one or two horses is easily taken care of, but even in small stables such things often are neglected. In this plan the carriage room is closed ofif from the stable which is right. The odor from the stable is a damage to the carriages and to the rugs. The stable should be warmer than the carriage room so the door works right from both sides. CONVENIENT HORSE BARN— A133 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 Men who keep good horses will appre- carriage room in which to keep vehicles ciate this plan. The arrangement of the away from the stable part and out of the stalls is convenient and there is a good dust. Every farmer who takes pride in PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 20I his horses likes to have a nice rig to drive, and it is impossible to have it without con- veniences for keeping it clean. With a good carriage room and a good harness light. There is a general work bench with a vise on one end and there are boxes to hold tools and supplies on the dark side of the room. The granary will be large ^/0£: £:L£:i^j^r/o/\i room there is no excuse for dirty buggies or an unsightly harness. A feature of this barn that should at- enough or not according to the other buildings on the farm. Where there is a large grain barn for threshing a smaller ! 3o^o ■ v\ >. li h '^s <-\ t-._r-o — l^ N ■ 1 Vf^Areevf 1^-L i-^ 9. tract special attention is the tool room. It is nine by ten feet in a front corner of the building with two good windows for granary in the horse barn seems to answer every purpose. The granary in this plan is placed right because it may be shut ofif 202 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS Avith two doors from the stable part, still rfiONT CLCi^/ir/ON it is not so far away as to make feeding inconvenient. There is room overhead for a good deal of hay and straw. The hay carrier will bring this stuff from the back end pretty well through to the front. It would probably be advisable to put a cement floor in this building. There are a great many different kinds of floors put in horse stables, in fact one style or manner of building a stable floor seems to prevail in one part of the country when another county perhaps just a few miles distant seems to favor a very differ- ent way of doing things. In some neigh- borhoods you find nothing but plank floors, in other places it is all cement, then again you get into a neighborhood where there are no floors at all. EIGHT HORSE STABLE— Ai 24 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 A small cheap horse stable is shown in horses and there is room enough overhead plan (A124). It sometimes happens that to hold the straw for bedding, but it would be necessary to provide the feed from [; je-, o' ^ a separate stable for horses is necessary because of the manner in which the other i K buildings are constructed and occupied. This little stable will accommodate eight /yo^ic ^r/TLL^s o «0 Z7/?//^/K>7y r- o'— soJt sr^JLi, ao^ <5r/r/.i. some near-by storage. It is not necessary to put a floor in this stable unless it be on the side where the open stalls are built. But a good many horse stalls have stiff clay pounded in and there are plenty of horsemen who prefer such stable bottoms. PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 203 CITY STABLE FOR TWO HORSES— Ai 14 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 A very neat carriage house is shown in plan (A114). It is intended to house two horses and have room enough for a couple of carriages. The building is supported by a stone wall three feet in the ground The way a driveway approaches the stable affects the appearance of the stable a good deal. Generally a pleasing effect may be obtained by a curved driveway where it is kept neatly trimmed at the and one foot above the ground to keep the floor well up, but the height of course must depend on the nature of the ground and location in reference to the street and driveway. It is not desirable to approach ^ws c^crvrr/OAf >S£C7yQ/V\ f f C/r/f/7//1G£r /fOO/t ■jrm./. •ST/7Ct. sides. If the driveway is gently rounded and the edges kept about two inches low- er than the sod it is easy to maintain a clean track and a well defined edge with- out putting a whole lot of unnecessary work on it. The lawn mower will trim /V/PJT" rz.00/? the main doorway by a very steep bridge because it is often necessary to run car- riages out and in by hand. Of course if it is necessary to set the floor up the drive- way may be raised accordingly, this how- ever very often runs into considerable ex- pense. S£CQNO rLOOR the grass and a spade used once a month will keep the edge of the drive in good shape. The floor of this carriage house is made solid by running a heavy girder length- wise of the building through the center. Joists are carried from the sills to meet the 204 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS girder. The floor is double, the first layer being an inch thick dressed on one side to make the boards even in thickness, is laid diagonally. On top of this is laid a layer of felt roofing mopped with tar, both un- neath and on top. The upper floor is one and three-eighths matched hard pine. In the stalls two inch planks are laid lengthwise, having an incline of two inches in the length of the stall. These planks are nailed to one cross piece in the middle and another cross piece a little thicker un- der the manger, but the nailing is not very solid because stable planks soon wear through and it is necessary to turn them end for end, sometimes within a year. SMALL BARN WITH CEMENT FLOOR— Ana Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 This barn is twenty-two feet wide by the plank, back of this the planks have thirty-four feet long and has a cement free ends which facilitate drainage back to floor cushioned with cinders the whole the gutter and makes it easy to remove the WtsT tno. size of the building, but the standing stalls have a plank floor running lengthwise of the stall over the cement. These planks ^ :^^V,i.yei/,p^^.LfV M*^j^[^^r-'-*tf"Vis^r & are not fastened except to two cross pieces — one under the manger is a two by four laid under the plank to give them the proper pitch. Another cross piece, an inch thick is placed in the middle to strengthen East Eno. floor if the planks should split or wear out. The box stall may have an earth floor, if so desired, three or four inches thick, made of good stiff clay wet down and H^ ^-:^'^^^|j^l.^i^L..».l-^.J^a^ ^'^ MU-mt.'ilfl-tf^pflPtT^ti^ rtonxM 3tDt tamped level over the cement. Some horse- men prefer a cement bottom with a foot or two of straw ; either way is good enough if the horses have the right kind of care. The oat bin is in the hav loft and the PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 205 corn bin may be put there too if thei.space Sliding doors usually are preferred for on the carriage room floor is needed. By a horse barn, and half door for ventila- SicoMD F"i.ooir, having the feed overhead and chutes for the different kinds of feed to the floor be- low, feeding is made easy. tion is a good thing. A horse will stand for hours with his head out of such a door with evident satisfaction. VILLAGE STABLE WITH CELLAR— Ai 16 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 A very neat, attractive stable for a city is laid down below frost, or it may be car- or village is here given. A good stone wall ried a little deeper and the part under the 'o/ro^ sz/a^/iM 3W£: £L£:^/fr/OM >ooii Puin. except stone or brick corners and center supports, but it is a good plan to put a board around under the sill and bury the lower edge in the ground. A barn that is open underneath makes a harbor for rats. It is better to have it boarded up. The stable doors in this plan, both at the north side and at the south side, are cut in two so the upper half may be opened for air and ventilation and the lower one remain shut to keep the animals from going out and in. The plan is as simple as possible to make a barn and still have it look well. It is large enough to be of some use and it has quite a loft for hay. A cheap little barn like this some- times answers the purpose as well as a more expensive one. It is a barn that would suit the average merchant who is engaged in other busi- ness besides actual store keeping. There are many such men who have a pair or more of horses for teaming purposes and who want more stall room than the ordin- ary small horse stable provides. ANOTHER CHEAP STABLE— A132 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 . Plan A132 is a small carriage house is never satisfied with it and it injures a which may be built at very little expense, person's property. It is just as easy to It often happens that a man wants to keep build an attractive stable, one that is well Ik HOT AJV; I.J.^ I.J.^»v.< tA_.> I .Kl J-ijU-.T FRonf E-LEVAjion a horse for his own driving when he don't care to put a great deal of expense on the stable. It is a mistake in such cases to build a cheap looking affair because a man Side E-LCvAyion proportioned and well designed because if rightly laid out it costs but little more than a poor looking affair that has a cheap appearance. It is all right to build cheap PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 211 if nobody finds it out, but we often see mis- in an expensive structure that is permitted erable structures that give away the own- to go to seed. er's ambition. The size of this barn is eighteen by Here is a stable that costs very Httle to twenty-four feet. Its attractive appear- •Hav i.orj. F3 D Bm. Floor Plah — -J build but you never would know it, especi- ally if it is neatly painted and nicely kept both inside and outside as it should be. There is sometimes more genuine satisfac- tion in a cheap building well cared for than SeconD Floor. ance is due more to the shape of the roof than to the general design or to any other one feature. All village barns should be placed carefully on the lot to look well and so they will not annoy the neighbors. SMALL BARN FOR A VILLAGE LOT— Am Cost of Blue Prints, $3.50 This is just a little affair, only eighteen three or four courses of brick laid around by twenty feet, but it is big enough to under the sills the building will set all hold four horses and leave room for a wagon on the storage floor. There is al- so loft enough to mow away three or four tons of hay. It is not necessary to make a very deep foundation for a little barn like this. .^&urH LMO4 right probably for a good many years, if the ground is leveled and Many small barns are just blocked up on 212 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS stones placed at the corners and one or ing if they get it cheap. The problem is two places along the sides but this is ob- how to build what will be satisfactory in jectionable because it makes a harbor un- a few years' time. Sometimes an inexpen- sive building may be shaded with trees or screened by vines in such a way as to give FiR&T Fboof? derneath for vermin. The foundation should have some air but air enough will penetrate through the chinks between the bricks if they are laid without mortar. The construction of this little barn is about as plain and simple as it could be and still have it look right when finished. Nobody likes a cheap looking building, but no one objects to a goodlooking build- it a presentable appearance even in winter. An evergreen or two planted along the side, if there is plenty of room, makes a great winter addition to the looks of a stable. Grape vines usually do well if sus- pended by wires from the eaves, but grape vines should never be tacked close to the side of a building, they need air on all sides. SERVICABLE BARN— Ai 72 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 This is a small barn, twenty feet by to avoid too much thirty-two feet, and contains a carriage room thirteen feet by nineteen feet, which has large double doors in front that will admit the largest size carriage, a wide sin- gle door to the horse stable, and a stair- way leading to the upper floor, which is for the storage of hay, feed, etc., a«id a man's room if it is desired. This barn contains two single stalls and a box stall. Each stall has a direct win- dow, which is high enough from the floor draft on the horses and it protected by a wire mesh guard. This barn has been designed for utility and is practical in every way. The ar- rangement is convenient, and it is of a neat appearance on the outside. If painted a stone grey, with all trimmings and cor- nice work painted pure white, it would be a credit to any neighborhood. The carriage room has a cement floor, which is slightly pitched from all direc- tions down to the center, where it is pro- PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 213 vided with a floor drain. This will admit with hot tar. The upper floor is then laid the carriages to be washed any place in and has slightly beveled edges, so that the room without injury to the floor or when laid the boards will fit tightly to- gether at the bottom and leaving about an the side walls which are wainscoted with Portland cement to a height of two feet six inches. All the walls of the first story and ceil- ing are finished with clear southern yellow pine, beaded ceiling, with two coats of hard oil. This makes a very pretty effect for a stable and it is at the same time very serviceable. The stall floors are of double thickness one and three-quarter inch floors. The first floor is tongued and grooved, tightly laid, and then covered eighth of an inch crack on the top surface, which is then filled with hot tar. This construction makes a very durable and sanitary floor. The entire stall floor is pitched slightly to the rear to a cast iron gutter with perforated cover and connect- ed with the catch basin and sewer. The second floor has ample storage room for a winter's supply of hay and feed for three horses and is of strong construction. The roof is of shingles and the ventilator gives the building a complete appearance. SEPARATE HORSE BARN— Ai 29 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 A small, convenient horse barn, twen- ty-one by thirty-two feet in size, with con- siderable mow room is shown in this plan. Such a barn is very convenient on some farms where for good reasons it is found best to keep horses in a building by them- selves. There are a good many farmers who ob- ject to stabling horses in the same build- ing with other animals, because they don't seem to mix just right. Horses are dif- ferent in their habits from many other do- mestic animals and it seems right and prop- er to give them a building to themselves when possible. Besides, it often is more convenient to have a small horse barn near the house to save steps in doing the chores. A horse barn is in use every day in the year, while on many farms the cat- tle barns are not used much in summer. Then again a horse barn properly cared for has no disagreeable odor. It may be near the house without causing annoyance. Very often women have driving horses of their own and they like to look after them themselves to a certain extent, and they very much prefer to have them with- in easy reach. Also in case of fire there is a further advantage in having farm buildings separate. The old English plan was to scatter farm buildings far enough apart to pre- 214 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS Sf^Li. ^ StAt-U o Stalw. 5t/»«-u Peed PtET) F*s6 f6BB J^ P3'o-y7't.' Ill < 'Utvoea pet-D fetD a"0%7V Sj/^Ll. ^ St ALL Stall Floor Plapi. PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 215 vent a general conflagration in case one should take fire, but farm labor is less ex- pensive in England and everybody knows that it costs more to care for animals housed in separate buildings because of the running back and forth and because you haven't a great big storage room all under one roof where feed may be hoisted by horse power and returned to the feed- ing floor by gravity. In building a little horse barn like this it is better to put down good foundation walls reaching below frost. By making the passageway floor about three inches higher than the floor behind the horses an incline will be provided sufficient to keep the feed room floor dry as well as to give the necessary drainage slope to the stand- ing floor for the horses. Most horsemen prefer to floor the horse stalls with planks, whether the bottom is cemented or not. This may be done be- fore the partitions are put in, but it is bet- ter to plank each stall separately. In eith- er case select planks two inches thick with tongue and groove matching and lay them with coal tar between. Give the floor a slight incline, say two inches fall in a dis- tance of eight feet. It is much better in a barn of this size, built for this purpose, to cover the whole bottom with a cement floor, cementing tight up against the walls all round and leaving a slight depression behind the horses; a sort of rounded open drain not more than an inch deep and slope the drain to the manure door so it is easy to wash the stalls and sweep the water out doors. A horse stable after this order will be found very convenient on any farm whether other buildings are calculated for horse stabling or not. LITTLE VILLAGE STABLE— A135 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 The little barn, eighteen by twenty-four partitions answers the purpose very well, feet, as shown in the plans and elevations To keep the cold from blowing down is a very satisfactory design and can be through the opening a light door with a ^^ 1^::^ ^:2^ t^:^ « A "~^^^ — -- ■ . i- HyiML = - ■ = lU used in either village or city. It is not ex- pensive, in fact, it is probably as cheap as any satisfactory structure could be. It is better not to take up room in such a small barn in building a stairway, as the upright ladder placed against one of the vy/zzf" £:i.£ry^T/oA/ pulley, cord and counter weight may be made to shut over the opening. If there is a boy in the family he will find a way to rig up a workbench in the front corner of the carriage room be- tween the door and the first window. It 2i6 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS is easy to encourage boys to work with tools, especially since the graded schools have taken up manual training. The /^//fsr r/.oo/? /=>/./? A/ schools have added tone to the work, boys don't consider it labor now, it is part of their education and it is an important part. too. Truth may be taught in a more thorough manner through mechanics than by any other means. The principle of learning a thing, by doing it is just as val- uable now as it was in Froebel's time. As a general thing a boy's work with tools is not very valuable when judged from a mechanical standpoint or from the amount of money that the finished product would bring, but it very often has a great educational value to the boy that is little appreciated by the older members of the family. The fundamental principles of mechanics permeate all nature. Animals are built on the best mechanical principles. There is a very close connection between mechanics and nature. Mechanics point the way to the connecting link between natural phenomena and commercial suc- cess. Mechanics and mathematics also are very closely related, but the natural live boy loves the one and hates the other. No woman wants a boy tinkering in the house, but he can spend many happy hours in the barn without disturbing anyone. ENGLISH CARRIAGE HOUSE— A99 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 Small artistic stables are more common in England than they are in the United States, possbily because the country is older and the people have had more time to develop an artistic taste in such mat- ters. An English gentleman likes to keep his cob and cart. He wants a good smart turn-out that presents a respectable if not a dashing appearance; then he likes to have things in keeping at home, so he maintains a very neat carriage house and stable. Some of these carriages houses are older than the proprietor but you would never know it to look at them. They are kept in such repair and they nestle amongst the hedges and trees in such a pretty homelike way that you never think about their age or intrinsic value. You get the impression at once that they are proper and proper goes a long way in England. You don't wonder that they have very neat stables just the right size and that they appear modestly retiring away to the back end of the pretty garden. It just seems to come natural. Their great, great grandfather or their double great uncle did the same thing long before they were born so all they have to do is to follow precedent. The English carriage house of today was built after hundreds of years of ex- perimenting until the location of every plank, the size and direction of every door and window was determined without any further question in regard ta the possi- bility of the slightest improvement. It is put back on the lot in the furtherest Corner from the house. The approach to it is through an arched or pillored opening in a beautifully well kept hedge. The drive- way is not straight. English gardeners keep just as far away from straight lines ■ as they possibly can. Somebody discov- PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 217 ered in the time of King Alfred that curved of the kinks out by injecting a few lib- paths and roadways in gardens were prop- eral doses of English conservatism so that er. Some of the old enthusiasts went a now after a good many generations the ^? =FTWT^ ;F= ^— T^r i-^-^^^'^^x'^ I yr/[LL •^^^11 JTALL JT^LL \\ UP 'i h ■lix Oil: h S"^ ' I I cmuA/o rioov pma/ If ^=^: ii step too far and got them crooked. This driveway from the lane through the back was frowned on for a century or two of the lot to the stable is gently curved, until succeeding generations pulled some The stable also is partially screened from 3l8 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS view by hedges, vines and trees : This is proper in England, it is good sense in any other country. The difficulty of doing things just right in the United States is that we are in too much of a hurry to get satisfactory re- sults. We get ready to build a stable one day and have the material on the ground before breakfast the next morning. We haven't decided where to put the thing so we go out with the carpenter harboring the idea that his time is going on and that while we detain him he is not engaged in sawing or hammering. For economy sake we must decide instantly. The street line is guessed at and the barn placed just a little inside. After it is up and the work- men have gone there is plenty of time to think it over and regret not having done some things differently, but the barn is up now, it has cost a little more than we counted on, they always do cost more than we expect, and we always expect they will when we start in, but at any rate we haven't any time or money now to change things or even level off the ground prop- erly. We haven't figured on a curved driveway, that is all nonsense, but we lay down some planks to keep us out of the mud. The finish is not satisfactory to our- selves or anybody else, but we have a barn and we have secured it in character- istic American hustle fashion so we ought to be satisfied. The plan (A99) shows the general ar- rangement. There is a room partitioned oflf in the gable upstairs for the man. A stairway going up from the carriage room lands in this upper room. The feed bills at the back of the stalls connect with the storage bin on the upper floor by means of spouts as indicated. There is a carriage room that is large enough to look well and to accommodate a number of vehicles. In- stead of having a harness room there are pegs for harness in a corner of the car- riage room and the harness is covered with curtains hung to a wire overhead. SMALL SUBURBAN BARN— A2 15 Cost of Blue Prints, $io.oo Showing a barn erected for the accom- member to start decay modation of two horses and two cows. It is 26 feet wide by 34 feet long and is con- structed of frame with cement plaster "rough cast" exterior wall and stained on account of dampness absorbed from the ground, and if this essential member of the structure is rotted away the balance will soon fol- low. Any method employed in the con- i m m m m shingle roof. It is set on a foundation of concrete which runs one foot higher than the ground floor, thus avoiding all damp- ness from the floor and ground coming in contact with the wood construction, which would otherwise soon decay. The sill of a barn is always the first 1-= ^ , , \ ■n T-^ ^ !;:<;■,::;. ■;.;;^.- .- } ■■■Ty-.:..--.-.*'.--: ■■-■•v.•''.^'^r■^^d■ , ' ■■"■ c^'S"^- H i _l ^ ''■"^-^ L- *BWW CLrmriont struction of a building that will lengthen the life of the sills is worth looking into. The roof of a building is justly consid- ered the most important part; a building can be built without much of a foundation PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 219 by setting it on posts or masonry piers, if made without projection beyond the ver- and for a few years perform all its require- tical walls, is of little value, as it will al- CAST ZIZ14V/0N USjr Ei.Zl'ATKM ments, but the roof can never be omitted ; and like the sill, it must be kept in good I jn.i:>as ^z^M ■ condition or the building will soon go to ruin. One of the most important parts of the roof is the gutter or cornice which. low the rain to run down the sides of the building and soon make the walls look weather worn and streaky from the dust which is washed down the walls with the rain. A well built cornice with a good pro- jection not only avoids this trouble, but also protects the walls from the hot sum- mer sun as well as giving architectural grace to the design. The outside walls of this building are constructed of 2 inch by 4 inch studding, 16 inches on centers, sheathed on the out- side with matched sheathing, then covered with waterproof building paper; then i inch by 2 inch furring strips placed 16 in- ches on centers (or over each studding) ; then lathed and cement plastered. This not only makes a very durable wall, but is warm in winter and cool in summer. The carriage room and cow stalls have cement floors and the box stalls are of plank. There is a large hay room on the second floor, a grain bin under the stair- way, and a harness case near the horse stalls. GOTHIC BARN— A181 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 If the horse barn is near the house and most cases the house is built first and the if the house has a steep roof the barn barn is added to the lot some years after- should have a similar roof to be in keep- wards. In the meantime some architec- ing. We often see a house of one style tural fad has taken possession of the and the other buildings nearby built on neighborhood and every building erected entirely diflferent lines. If the house is must bear the marks of the new fashion, new and the other buildings old there is There is too little originality in build- some excuse for such incongruity, but in ing. It is much easier to follow the local 220 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS trend than it is to hunt out a plan that is suitable for individual needs. In offering this barn plan it is with the idea that there are many locations where the style of building and the shape of the roof will match the house and other surroundings better than any other plan. A roof like this is not economical to build if the owner is influenced especially by dollars and cents, but there is a style some way so it is not obtrusive. But there is something wrong with a man who will build a gothic house and a barn with a flat roof on the same lot. His ideas have been dwarfed in some direction. His property shows it because it does not balance up right. A lot with its buildings must be one homogenous whole or it shows at once that it has not been arranged rightly. A DE>5/CAJ mz? A^MALL BAPA^ WITH rOUR 3TALLS about it that shows up well for the amount of money it costs. There is a great deal in appearance, iWhen we have things right we have something to appreciate for a long time to come. If the house has a steep roof we cannot tolerate a barn with a main roof that is, say one-third pitch and a lean-to that is even less. If the mischief has been done conditions may be somewhat improved by moving the barn back well out of the way and hav- ing it covered with vines or screened in village stable may be made an ornament to the property or a damage to the owner and an eyesore in the neighborhood. Neighbors often say unkind things about the owner of the barn on the next lot. Not always on account of the looks of the thing ; they may be aggravated by the per- fume or the noise of the chickens when they want to sleep in the morning. A good many folks don't like neighbors and it is generally for some such reason, but neighbors are necessary and the PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 221 neighbors sometimes build barns and they don't always keep them nicely. It requires a level-headed man to lay out a lot to the best advantage and put up buildings in such a way that no one can find fault with them. There is something about the arrange- ment of this barn inside that will appeal is a good plan to have some little cupboard like this that may be locked when occasion requires it. In almost every stable medi- cines are kept and they should be out of the way of children. It is a splendid pre- caution to keep medicine bottles locked up. A great many accidents have come just from carelessness in this respect. rfP-5T TL007R PLA/s/ ^ECOAyo rLooy^ to every orderly person. The stalls are right for convenience both in handling the horses and for cleaning the stable. The carriage room is quite large and conven- ient with two store rooms, one for gen- eral garden tools with a place for small work bench on one side, a necessity in almost any village lot where a man is kept to do the chores. The other storeroom is intended for harness. There is also a case which comes in very handy to keep the smaller things and those that are valu- able. The glass doors slide past each other and may be easily locked shut. It Every village stable that is large enough should have a room for the man; it may not be necessary at all times, but the time will probably come when this room will be found very useful. In this case it is built in one of the large gables where the roof is steep enough to lath and plaster right on the rafters. It is a case of build- ing a roof and a side at the same time and it makes a saving in expense in one way or the other. You either don't pay for the roof or you don't pay for the side of the room. CEMENT ROUGH CAST BARN— A182 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 A carriage house and stable plastered ment for laundry purposes under the house on the outside with cement mortar with is not desirable. This plan for a carriage a rough cast finish is shown in plan (No. house with a laundry attachment was de- A182) There are locations where a base- signed especially to meet such cases. In 222; PRACTICAL BARN PLANS New Orleans, La., such carriage houses This building is substantial in appear- are quite common. There is a great deal ance and the manner of construction is of made ground and the sewers are not very satisfactory for a warm climate. The deep enough to permit much underground outside cement work when properly put building, so that basement laundries are on with metal lath is very durable. It _not common. To meet just such condi- looks well and is not expensive. Effl 1 f « I RE^j^T^ Ei.^\/jcayo^ tions stables with laundry rooms just The usual conveniences found in small seem to fill the bill, especially when they barns are provided in this building, but it are well designed and built to suit indi- is a little more elaborate than ordinary, vidual needs. The box stalls are especially large and PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 223 roomy, there is a larger feed room than is customary and the harness room is a little larger than we usually find in a small which not only furnishes hot water for washing and for stable use, but to warm the stables and the servants' rooms in win- il IB Hl§ Lxrr ysm «n«55^a^/ or medium sized stable. But the especial features about the building are the rooms ter. This laundry room is also large enough to hold the clothes lines in stormy 4 J„ ,__ //-V- j|i ji^-o- r/jpsr :Fj:iv/r. jpzaj^t ^^-A — ^^-i.*- for servants with an entrance separate weather, and there are plenty of windows from the carriage house, and the laundry for light. , , . , with its hot water heating apparatus. Laundry work is a problem m the south 224 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS as well as in the north. Those who get The building is large enough to match up along with the least friction usually have well with a good big residence and the de- the best possible conveniences for doing sign and style of the roof shows character the work. Large light laundry rooms enough for a house, in fact many costly .3sr0A0 /zan^AASf noo^ f^* supplied with plenty of hot water and fur- nished with good machinery and tubs that are rightly placed and fitted with the nec- essary faucets, waste pipes, etc., ofifer more inducements to do good work and less oc- casion for complaints than ordinary. There are many advantages in having the laundry room away from the house. It avoids confusion in the house on wash days and the odors of dirty steam and soapy water are done away with. For a pretentious property a stable building of this design and size looks well. houses are built with roofs that are less attractive than this one. A carriage house like this is not complete without a good wide drive leading to it. This design re- quires a smooth pavement in front of the building one-third wider than the building itself. It should have a pretentious ap- proach to give it proper setting. Some- times an inferior building can be given a royal appearance by an elaborate entrance. A driveway to the stable is part of the en- trance. In this plan the inside is right, the outside looks well. HORSE AND COW HOUSE— A131 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 A small carriage house with stable room a good sized lot in the city or village. A for two horses or a horse and a cow is a horse stall makes a splendid stall for a very convenient thing when a person has cow, better than what is ordinarily de- PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 225 signed for a cow stall because there is more room and it gives more comfort. A cow appreciates comfort and will give rffONT CLCir/ZT/ON enough more milk to pay for it. Of course a cow in a horse stall needs plenty of bed- ding, but where only one cow is kept it is easy enough to furnish all the litter necessary. There are a good many designs for small { — . ^i'-O carriage houses, some of which are decid- edly homely. A good many of the fancy buildings are too expensive. Here is a comparatively cheap structure, but it is all right for looks and it is a convenient stable to do work in. There is a hay chute which reach^rf from the loft to the manger below with openings for both stalls, which is a very convenient arrangement and is ■ v.'!./^ {ICI>-l~''.i-,l"~ SW£ CL£tfJirtON worth a good deal just to keep the hay dust and chaff out of the horse's mane and fore top. It also leaves the feed boxes in the corner of the mangers for grain and other feeds. A carriage house like this may have a ■S£:COAfO FLOOR plank floor or the floor may be left out en- tierly and the ground leveled up with cin- ders except the stalls and the very best stall floor is made of stiff clay pounded in wet. Some of the most successful horsemen prefer a clay .bottomed stall. CARRIAGE HOUSE AND STABLE— A127 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 ' The illustration on next page shows a feet on the ground and fourteen feet high carriage house and stable twenty by thirty to the plates. The ceiling is eight feet six 226 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS inches which is about as low as you can really requires about three times as much have a ceiling in a carriage house because room to stable horses this way. '<0 nl lo-< DDnna ODODD ^''"KfiVVh'^S^! QD DD Qtyjy LO'o U-u<» I ij,jj'\ o/<^ From 7 ELlevayiom. you must have room enough for a top buggy. For this reason the doorway must be about the same height. The internal arrangement of this stable is different from most small carriage houses. There is a box stall about nine feet square. It is difficult to plan a decent sized box stall in a small stable. They run into room too fast. Nothing looks so comfortable for a good horse as a roomy box stall. If the horses had their say about it there would be more box stalls, but it HORSE SHED— A121 On farms where a number of brood mares are kept and colts of all ages coming along, it is much better to have a separate shed for winter feeding for the colts than FUOOR FuAPt. let them run at large among the cattle. One colt might not do much damage in the general barnyard, but colts are mis- chievous and one teaches another. PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 227 A light shed may be built on this plan, thoroughly banked up in the fall to keep which IS fifteen by thirty-four feet, at very out the cold winds. In banking up a shed little expense. It should front on the stack like this set a board all around the outside HO/?J£: ^HCO yard and face the south if possible. For to keep the earth away from the building economy it is placed on cedar posts let in proper. Fit the board nicely so there are the ground below frost, but it should be no chinks to let in the cold draft. WELL PLANNED HORSE BARN— A171 Cost of Blue Prints, $10.00 To make this article more comprehen- essary feed bins, harness room, wash sive to those interested in barn construe- room, grain room, carriage room, storage tion we show an exact reproduction of rooms,etc. A/ORTM l^LeVAT/OA/ QT /-/OWiE OAR/V the architectural plans after which the The carriage room, which is 30 by 36 building was erected. feet clear span without posts, is on the This building is designed to accommo- east end and has an entrance of large date fourteen horses, having ten sing/e double sliding doors, and also a large slid-^ stalls and four box stalls, and all the nee- ing door to the horse stable. The carriage 228 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS room floor contains a carriage wash near its center and overhead is a large trap door, so any vehicles which are out of use can be hoisted up to the floor above for storage. The carriage room also has di- rect doors to the harness washing room. which are connected with spouts from the larger bins on the upper floor. The box stalls have sliding doors with .-y/ m^ a wire grill in the top half, and the parti- tions between all stalls have wire grills running up to a height of about 7 feet -t=-#=-r=i--^ CRoaA - oa-r/'cxv 1 %" !;[_ 'n tws/e/ruw^Au •ftec-r/o^/ o* mtA^ir^A The harness room is equipped with dust proof cases for the harness, blankets, etc., and the washing room contains a sink with soft water supply and all the neces- sary fixtures required for the washing and repairing of the harness. The stable room contains a watering trough, a store room for tools, shovels, etc., and a grain room for the mixing of feed, and which has small grain bins above the floor, thus obtining a free cir- culation of light and air. Each stall is equipped with a window that is hinged on top and swinging out. This provides each animal with fresh air and a direct draft upon the animal is avoided by these windows being placed up near the ceiling, also being covered with a wire screen for protection. All stalls have cast iron feed boxes, salt boxes and wrought iron hay PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 229 racks connected directly with hay chutes provided with trap doors by which the from the hay room above. All stall floors flow of air can be regulated as desired, are slightly sloped to the back and there and this shaft at the same time serving for connected with a cast iron drain trough a hay and bedding chute. running the full length of and on each side The second story is used for the storage of the driveway. of hay, bedding, grain and feed, and the In the ceiling of this driveway is a large room above the carriage room is partition- .'I rnrr: I 1 .1 : — — ' ».- r 13Er'"'"S3""''"S]' rsrr! SJ r^''.-: i ...» *-V- ""'"'/"■"■"" ^— ^4r^^ «-.-_-.-.-..:.■ ir--r- !' • I L-: >y <• 3-< — .>"— \ 1 J, r:fe:r: m -f{ :^ n. trap door for throwing down hay and bed- ding, and also for the hoisting of hay from the hay wagon in stormy weather. One of the roof ventilators has a shaft running down to the ceiling of the horse stable for ventilation, and is at this ceiling ed off into a dust-proof room for the stor- age of vehicles, etc. This building is built on a foundation of stone piers, so as to admit a free circula- tion of air under the floor and to prevent the floor from becoming cold in the horse 230 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS stable it is built, as will be seen in the detail above the longitudinal section, by- first resting the joists upon the sills, then floored with a matched floor i inch thick, which is covered with a heavy building paper, then by 2 by 2 inch strips nailed one over each joist. The space between these strips is filled with mineral wool, then this entire surface is floored with a strong floor iH inches thick, and on this are laid strips of various thickness to re- ceive and form a pitch to the stall floors. On the sills over each stone pier is set a 6 by 8 inch post for the support of the sec- ond story floor and roof. These posts run up to the plate, which is a 6 by 8 inch tim- ber, and at the second story joist level there is a 6 by 8 inch timber notched in between these posts for the bearing plate of the second floor joist. All these timbers are braced at all intersections with 4 by 6 inch braces. The outside walls are form- ed by filling in between these bents with 2 by 6 inch studding spaced 2 feet on cen- ters and well spiked to the floor joist, sills and plates. The inside surface of these studding are covered with heavy building paper, then ceiled with matched flooring, and the outside surface of studding is also covered with paper and then sided with drop siding. The roof is of cedar shingles dipped in moss-green creosote stain, which in contrast with the white painted walls, makes a very artistic efifect. The interior of the carriage room is finished in yel- low pine beaded ceiling. RESIDENCE BARN— A216 Cost of Blue Prints, $15.00 A residence barn to accommodate three room is of good proportions and has a vehicles and three horses. The carriage wide door at front and rear. The har- RUNWAY ness room and man's room are of good size, and conveniently located. The construction of this barn is of the balloon frame; there is a concrete found- ation. The ground floor is of cement and PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 231 all rooms are cement wainscoted up to the window sills, making the walls water- proof. The exterior design is of a modern style with a Japanese style of roof which gives the building a very odd but charm- ing artistic appearance. There are so many windows in this sta- ble that it is very light inside and they give it an expensive look outside. It is not generally recognized that windows are about as cheap nowadays as any other part of the building. As soon as people gen- erally grasp this idea all farm buildings will be made lighter, more sanitary and more cheerful. The side walls are rough cast cement up to the windows and the balance of ex- terior vertical walls sided. The roof is of moss green stained shingle, which in connection with the white siding, grey cement and brown stained trimmings, makes a very striking exterior that would do credit to any neighborhood where the commonplace board-and-batten barn would be objectionable. This barn, though somewhat artistic in its outline, can be built at a reasonable price, and con- tains no work that cannot be executed with materials that can be bought from the stock of the lumberyard. The interior makes very good provision for two or for three horses, there being two single stalls and a large box stall. The man's room is well finished and is very pleasant. The harness room is large and nicely lighted. There is a large conven- ient loft for hay and grain storage. The entire barn is exceptionally well lighted and ventilated. SMALL LIVERY BARN— Ai 38 For a village or a small city this plan of- fers a comparatively cheap building that ffl fffOMr CLCit^r/off JIO£ iTLCir^r/ON may be used to advantage by a man who keeps four or five horses for hire. Usually in such cases it is not necessary to have a great deal of feed storage room because the hay is baled and sometimes the straw comes in bales. A good harness room is necessary and it often happens that the hostler wants to sleep in the stable and this room, ten by fifteen feet, is sufficient for such purposes. The problem in all livery stables is how to take care of the different rigs. There are cutters and sleighs to be taken care of nine or ten months in the year, when they are not in use, and there are wagons in the way almost all the time. Storage room is expensive and sometimes ground room is an object. Too often public stables are littered around outside of the building with old trash that should be sold for junk or burned up. Such conditions are more no- ticeable in the smaller places. But pride in keeping up one's property is just as val- uable and just as necessary in a village as in the city. Perhaps liverymen and black- smiths are a little more careless in this re- spect than any other class of citizens. Why 232 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS this should be so is a mystery. It costs place for everything and everything in its nothing to be neat and neatness attracts place is a suggestion which applies to liv- N /a-a — -S-o- //0/?^£ Sr/7JLZ.^ z?/?/i^^A/^/9y trade in these lines as well as others. From erymen and blacksmiths all over the general observation it would seem that a country. LIVERY STABLE— A218 This stable is of frame construction, built on concrete foundation and has con- crete floor throughout the entire ground floor area. The front building, contain- ing the office, carriage room, wash room, etc., is separated from the building con- taining the horses by a cement fire-proof wall and fire-proof door. The entire ex- terior wall surface of building is covered with galvanized iron siding and a corru- gated iron roof, making the exterior prac- tically proof against fire. The boiler room has brick walls, fire-proof doors and ce- ment floor and ceiling. With these pre- cautions against fire, electric light being used for illumination, the building is reas- onably safe, although built with wood walls. The stable contains thirty stalls, one of which is a box stall for sick horses, with double doors from the yard and single door from driveway. All stalls have re- movable plank floors laid on the cement floors, with slight pitch toward the rear of stalls. The stall partitions are of match- ed plank, four feet high and have an iron guard on top, making top of guard seven feet above floor. Each stall is provided with a hay manger and feed box. There is a hay chute of galvanized iron between PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 233 each two stalls, this hay chute running filled with at least four inches of cement from second story floor to top of hay man- to prevent the horses from biting into the ■■■■■■ m i» 7v£?o/v7" ^:A.£rv5<^.-7-/o/v/ ger; is built larger at the bottom than at planks, and the front edge the top to prevent hay from clogging, is covered with Strap iron The bottom of mangers and feed boxes are counter-sunk screws. of the manger fastened with 234 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS The carriage room has a clear 22 foot span and is 50 feet long. At the rear it contains a vehicle hoist or elevator to ad- ditional storage room and paint shop, lo- cated at the rear end of second floor over carriage room. The front end of second floor facing the street, contains a comfort- able flat, consisting of a parlor, living room, dining room, pantry, kitchen, bath- room and three bed rooms of good size, all rooms having outside v^rindows and good ventilation. The second story over the horse stable contains a large hay room, bed- ding room, storage room, and grain bins. PITCH OF BARN ROOFS— A228 One-thifd pitch means that the peak of a roof is about one-third of the width of the building higher than the plates, that is if the building is thirty feet wide the peak has an elevation of 9 feet, scale measure above the plates. Half-pitch would be half the diameter higher, or fifteen feet above the plates, while full pitch would be 26 feet scale measure. What interests a farmer most in the pitch of a barn roof is the storage capacity as compared with the expense. Any pitch from one-third up is a good one so" far as service and lasting qualities go. A half- pitch might last a little longer than a third- pitch, but there is not enough diflference to pay for the extra cost. Full pitch is used only for architectural effect except in cases of gambrel roofs when half pitch or even steeper is often used for the lower portion between the gambrel and the eaves. In gambrel roofs the upper section often is as flat as one-fourth pitch while the dis- tance from the curb to the eaves is some- times very steep and both sections are short. Some farmers claim that it is just about as cheap to carry the sides of a barn a few feet higher and use a plain one-third pitch roof while others feel that it is a great deal better to set the plates at the usual height ■" and carry the roof up in gambrel roof form. It depends somewhat on the size of the building and proportions, and the length of material that can be secured. Twelve and sixteen foot boarding are the com- monest lengths. The higher you go above the plates the more expensive is the build- ing in proportion, because scaffolding must be higher and all work above a cer- tain height costs more. The work on the roof is a little different because the roof is ^0^0 its own scaffold. Most people like the looks of a gambrel roof on a barn, and looks count for a good deal after the build- ing is finished. Feed Lots and Cattle Sheds FEED LOTS FOR BEEF CATTLE— A184 WHERE cattle are fed in large numbers it pays and pays well to fit up prop- erly for the business. In the corn belt, buy- ing thrifty young cattle and finishing them for the market, is a splendid business in the hands of men who understand how to buy, how to feed and how to sell. The old fashioned way of putting a fence around a mud-hole and confining a bunch of cattle in the mire for weeks or months at a time ceased to be profitable long ago, but unfortunately some men haven't found it out. Considerable engineering ability is required to plan and construct feed lots for the accommodation of large numbers of cattle in such a way as to make the ani- mals comfortable and to economize labor. Plan (A184) has received very careful attention in this respect. The storage barn and silos are set on a ridge of ground slop- ing preferably to the southwest. The feed lots, thirty-two by seventy-two feet in size, including the shed, are fenced off one after another as many as needed. Two yards only are shown in the drawings be- cause no matter how many you have each pair of two would be a repetition of this pair. The lots might be extended a quar- ter of mile holding the same order. It works better if the ground is about eight feet lower for the feed lots than it is for the storage barn and silos as this gives a chance to run the track from the floor of the storage barn over the heads of the cattle high enough to leave a pas- sageway under for a pair of horses and a manure spreader. Eight feet in the clear is little enough and it is high enough be- cause straw as well as feed will be brought to each lot by a car on the overhead track. The car is made large for this purpose, be- ing four feet wide at the bottom, six feet wide at the top, four feet high and eight feet long. When filled with silage it will make quite a load, but one man can move it if the wheels are large and kept well oiled and if the truck is level and true. Some feeding yards have an incline track, but this is not necessary, in fact it is ob- jectionable because the car will never stay where you want it and it is uphill work getting it back to be refilled. Make the track absolutely dead level and perfectly straight. Two by fours plated on top with two inch band iron that has been hammer- ed straight and true will answer very well but the two by fours must be well sup- ported and thoroughly spiked in place. In iauilding the track remember that you are trying to save time and labor at every feeding period for a number of years to come. You want the track so true and the car wheels to fit so perfectly that the car will run along without much friction after getting started. One man with a rig like this that works right should feed a large bunch of cattle because he can take advantage of his work. 235 236 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS ^ i-^0 Hj lj CROSS SECTION OF CORN CRIB FEEDER o I ut r: w a tn u PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 237 CR05S SECTION or 5HED z o Q r I- o 238 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS In the first place he has got a car big enough to hold something. He runs a chute from the silo to the car which saves forking the silage up from the floor until the silo is nearly empty. The sides of the car are hinged so they drop down over the feeding racks in the yards. He loads the car quickly and easily and a good deal of the stuff unloads itself. The track is made I I M ^ i;,o" N L U CR05S SECTION OF CAR in sixteen foot sections, as the yards are thirty-two feet wide the tracks have one support in the middle of the yard. The other supports form part of the fences be- tween the yards. In laying out the yards the problem of drainage must be worked out first. It is impossible to have the yards dry unless ample provision is made for taking care of the rainfall. A drain tile is marked on the plan leading from the corner of the storage barn and running across the ends of the feeding pens down the whole length of the alley to an outlet in the field be- yond. The brick pavement in each feed lot slopes to the center to lead the water to the tile drain underneath which con- nects with the trunk line of tile near the fence in the alley. This main drain in- creases in size to accommodate the extra CR055 SECTION OF CORN CRIB drainage as it proceeds past the different pens. An open shed twelve by thirty-two feet occupies one end of each yard. This shed is not paved but is kept well bedded. All the rest of the yard is paved with brick laid flat on a cinder bed. An additional drain tile runs from each water tank to the trunk tile line to take care of any overflow from the tank. In some locations another tile drain will be PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 239 necessary at the back of the shed because the ground must be kept dry. Water Supply. Good fresh water in sufficient quantity to supply the needs of the cattle in these feed lots is quite a problem in itself. The water must be good and there must be plenty of it. It must also be supplied under pressure and carried to each water tank in pipes placed under ground below frost. There must be a valve placed in each pipe running to each water tank so constructed that it won't freeze. The stems from these valves should be extended up to the over- head track so a man can walk from one end of the feeding yards to the other and reg- ulate the water easily and quickly. Generally the water must be supplied by a windmill and a reservoir of some kind. A cement basin in a nearby hillside is perhaps the most satisfactory because when once made it is permanent. The source must be sufficient to supply it and the windmill or other power which does the pumping must be powerful enough to do the work at all times. You cannot af- ford to take chances on a water famine with several hundreds of feeding cattle on your hands. Storage Bam. In the plan not much attention is paid to the storage barn except that it shows the most convenient lofcation. Every feed- er must plan storage to suit his way of do- ing business. If he has a large farm on which he grows alfalfa, grain and other crops that make large quantities of rough- age he must provide an extensive storage barn with appliances to get the stuff in and out again when needed for feeding. Generally speaking the barn should be large and high. The capacity of a storage barn is increased by additional height at a very rapid ratio because all kinds of loose fodder packs very close in the bottom and lies very loose at' the top. A deep bay may be filled to the peak with hay at haying time and settle sufficiently to hold a large quantity of sheaf wheat a few weeks later, but a shallow mow don't hold much at any time. It don't have the weight sufficient to pack it. There will, of course, be a good solid floor over the car track and there will be chutes or openings to let the hay down di- rectly into the car and there will be a lad- der to let a man down into the car to tramp it full. The same horse fork that is used to put the fodder in will move the stuff from the other parts of the barn to this floor as it is needed. Brick Pavement. There is only one way to have a feeding lot clean and that is to pave it. There are different kinds of pavements more or less virtuous but the cheapest satisfactory bot- tom for a feeding yard is brick laid on a foundation of sand and cinders. The cin- ders help drainage and prevent the bricks heaving with the frost. It is easier to lay the bricks level and smooth if an inch or two of sharp sand is scattered over the top of the cinders. The sand holds the bricks in place and a little sand does not prevent the water from getting away. A great deal depends on the foundation. The ground should be graded with the proper slope to the center gutter. It is not necessary to have an opening in the bricks, the cracks between the bricks are suffici- ent, but a line of tile should be carefully laid underneath deep enough to be out of the way of frost. Frost does not penetrate deep in a feeding yard under a brick pave- ment. During some winters the ground won't freeze. There is more or less litter scattered about that prevents hard freez- ing. Probably if the tile starts a foot be- low the brick at the shed end and deepens to two and one-half feet where it joins the trunk tile in the alley the drain will give no trouble. Lay the tile first smoothly and evenly and cover the joints with pieces of broken tile, then fill in with coarse cinders using no earth over the tile. Tile in a mud-bot- tom barn yard seldom works satisfactorily because the tramping of the cattle packs the mud so that the water can't get through. A mud-bottom yard has never 240 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS been drained and the chances are that such a yard never will be drained- in a satisfac- tory manner. Commence laying the brick in the center over the tile and work both ways to the fences. The herring bone style of laying brick gives the best satisfaction. No two brick tip alike when laid like this. Of course you want every brick to lay flat and level, but you don't always get just what blowing under and the ground floor of the shed slopes to the brick pavement. A lib- eral supply of straw for bedding is kept in the shed and this is carefully shaken up every day. Feeders now-a-days appreciate the im- portance of making animals comfortable. It takes a good deal of feed to supply the heat dissipated by animals lying on the cold ground. Straw is cheaper than corn. 32' O" /0"\ D I P I ' t" ■ ' "t fc" CINDEf?S DETAIL OF BRICK PAVEriEWT you want. If good hard burned bricks are laid flat, herring bone style on a good foundation you will have more comfort and satisfaction than you ever had in a feeding lot before. If you have lots of money to use and don't care for expense then put in a cement pavement and build it just the same as sidewalks are built. You will then have a yard that will last a lifetime, but it won't be as dry as the brick because the water must all run to the end or center outlet on top of the pavement before it can get away. The Shed. A continuous shed is designed to run the whole length of the feeding plant with- out a break. The shed is twelve feet wide and eight feet high in front and six feet six inches high at the back. The shed faces the south and the front is left open to ad- mit sunshiny The construction is light and cheap as shown in the detail drawing. There are no partitions except the fences between pens which run to the back of the shed, in fact the fence posts and shed posts are the same. Two by six rafters fourteen feet long are used for the roof. These are covered with sheathing boards, dressed one side, and on this is stretched a good quality of felt roofing. The north side is banked with cinders to prevent the cold winds from Beef cattle don't require much protec- tion against the cold. Their thick winter hair and hides are sufficient if they are kept dry and well fed. Cattle will gain a little faster on the same amount of feed if kept warmly stabled, but they must have fresh air and the extra expense of individ- ual attention when handling them in a stable more than eats up the additional profits from the extra gains made. A feed- ing rack well up above the ground along the back of the shed is a good thing at times in rainy weather ; it induces the cat- tle to stay inside. It is better to put the feeding racks on the ground when you use them regularly every day, but ground space in the shed is limited and such racks will be used occasionally only. For this reason it is not desirable to take up any more ground space than necessary for this purpose. Corn Crib. On the south side of the alley way is a corn crib six feet wide at the bottom, eight feet wide at the top, ten feet high above the foundation posts and as long as necessary. This corn crib is intended for storage purposes to hold corn enough to last all winter. There is a door in the end and doors along the alley side thirty-two feet apart, each door being opposite the door of a feeder crib. A temporary bridge reaches from one door to the other so the PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 241 242 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS carrying may be done with a wheelbar- row or car running on a track. As the bridge is intended to be moved from one feeder crib to the next a wheelbarrow would be handier than a car because it is lighter and may be easily moved. Feeder Cribs. Between each two pens is a feeder crib six feet wide at the bottom, eight feet wide at the top and eight feet high. These cribs are forty feet long extending back from the alley fence. This gives forty lineal feet of corn trough for each feeding yard. These feeding troughs are made by extending two by four floor cross joists two feet beyond the sills at each side. The floor in the crib is laid on top of these cross joists and the feeder boxes are made by boarding on the under side and across the ends. This makes the floor of the feeder trough about five inches lower than the floor of the crib which permits the corn to work out easily and in case of a driving storm the water does not run in from the feed troughs to wet the crib floor. Some little experimenting is necessary to get the opening the right size. A smaller opening answers when the trough is lower than the corn floor. A narrow strip may be nailed in the opening at the top if it is found too large. The roofs of these feeder cribs are made by using sixteen foot boards full length. The projection keeps the feeder troughs dry and provides a little shelter for the an- imals when feeding. For the comfort of the cattle it is a good plan to run eave troughs the whole length of these roofs. The water could be carried to the water tanks or the drain in the alley. At corn harvest time these feeder cribs of course would be filled first with the ear- liest and best seasoned corn to feed first. The later and poorer quality of corn would be housed in the main storage crib. It is not every feeder of beef cattle who approves of self feeder cribs, but if they don't like to have the animals help them- selves the same cribs and the same troughs will be just as useful, so that the man who really loves to work may dig the corn out, load it in a basket and carry it around to the side of the crib and distribute it along the troughs. It will pay some men to do this, men who are built that way. Each man must work in his own harness. Silos. For some unaccountable reason beef men have entertained a prejudice against silos. But not every man who feeds cat- tle without their assistance objects to si- los. In many cases they have more corn stalks than they can feed without trying to save the last vestige of the corn crop and they think the animals can cut the feed and mow it away cheaper than it can be done by machinery, but the fact remains that nearly one-half of the feeding value of the corn crop is in the stalks and leaves of the corn plant. If cut just at the right time, when the sap is all in the stalk, cut up fine and packed away in an airtight silo the stalks lose very little of their feed- ing value. They may be kept a year and the last silage from the bottom comes out as fresh and apparently as palatable as the first. Cattle will even leave pasture in the summer time to eat left over silage. If we ask the animals what they think of it their actions are strongly in the affirma- tive. We must study these things in detail to thoroughly understand our business. Looking at the silo problem from the broadest side it certainly would pay to put some of the crop in silos. The stalks from eigth or ten acres will fill a sixteen by thir- ty-two foot silo so that most feeders would only have an opportunity to cut off one side of the corn crop and they would still have a large quantity of stalks to go to waste. The silos in the plan are made of two by eight pine planks dressed both sides, the edges beveled and put together like a tub. They are hooped with three-quarter inch round iron hoops drawn up with nuts against the shoulders of cast iron plates as shown in the detail drawing on another page. This feeding plant is designed to save PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 243 labor and to utilize feed to the best possi- to build, on any other plan, a thoroughly ble advantage It would be difficult to practical plant that could be extended in- build a large plant any cheaper and have definitely as the business grows without It satisfactory. It would also be difficult altering or rebuilding. CHEAP CATTLE SHED Some kind of a cattle shed is necessary in connection with every feed lot. Plan (A123) shows a cattle shed ninety feet -A123 ^ long and ten feet six inches wide. It is built of two by fours for framing, covered with boards twelve feet and sixteen feet the full length of the shed against the back wall. The front side of the manger is bedded in the ground which together with a little banking on the outside pre- vents the cold winds from blowing under. Some feeders fail to realize the importance of this precaution. The north wind seems much colder when it forces through a small opening. There is something about the bottom of a shed that seems to invite a current of air from the north, but this feed manger arrangement seems to get the better of it. Mangers should be low for another reason. For thousands of years cattle have been accustomed to feed from the ground. While in pastures they keep their heads down nearly all of the time, but for some unaccountable reason they are expected to hold their heads two or three feet high when being fed artificially. The shed is supported by short cedar posts which are set well into the ground, the tops of them being cut almost even with the surface. The doors are made wide enough and high enough to get in T /TLLCY I At/fNCf/^ V •SECTION mo Pi/iN or c/trrL£- sz/ro long which cut to advantage without easily with a manure spreader, and there waste except at the ends. are no posts or partitions in the way so There is a low-down manger which runs that it is easy to clean out the manure. CATTLE SHED— Ai 55 Sheds on three sides of a hollow square a straight away proposition where you is an old style way of building feeding can run a railway and a feed truck the sheds. It is probably the best way now whole length of the shed. The hollow except that it is more difficult to economize square proposition has the advantage of labor with this construction than it is with warmth because it is protected from the 244 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS -east, west and north winds. Yards like swing easily and fasten quickly help a this are always built opening towards the good deal, south. It is customary to drive around with a J ■SE.X.TKit4 OF- ■JaOi^KlitNO- In this plan there are convenient gates to drive in when bringing roughage or other feed to the cattle. The gates to look well should be made right and left and they should have automatic devices to fas- ten them quickly. Animals confined in a yard in the winter time are crazy to get out. They learn how to slip up alongside of a wagon and crowd through the gate when the driver is engaged with his team. This "is a source of annoyance that can hardly be avoided, but good gates that rack load of feed and dunip a little in each feed rack as often as necessary. Sometimes a self-feeder for corn in the ear is placed in the middle of the yard and this helps a good deal in saving labor and the labor problem is worrying feeders more every year. There are feed carriers that may be hung from an overhead track to pass around through a shed like this, but us- ually the cars do not hold enough to ef- fect much of a saving. Poultry Houses THE BEST POULTRY HOUSE — A219 THE cheapest poultry house may not be the best, but it has been demonstrated that it is not necessary to go to a great deal of expense to make a poultry house that is as good as the best. A few funda- mental principles will cover the whole subject. A poultry house must be clean, airy and dry, so the location is very im- portant. If you ask any experienced poultry man what one thing has given him the most trouble he will tell you lice. If you chase down a failure in poultry raising and get at the true inwardness you will find lice at the bottom. Knowing this to start with one of the first requisites is to build a house that may be easily and thoroughly cleaned and kept clean. Have the word cleanliness stamped on the house from one end to the other. To accomplish this every article of fur- niture in the house must be removable. There must not be a crack or crevice to harbor lice that you cannot fill with crude oil or some other disinfectant and you must have a handy cleanout where the litter may be removed and replaced with new clean material with as little work as possible. Next to cleanliness comes ventilation which in a poultry house means admitting plenty of fresh air without the slightest suspicion of a draft, a problem that has caused more experimenting than any other one item in connection with poultry rais- ing. After years of experience the whole problem has been worked down to a very simple construction and the most popular house today is a low, cheap affair that rrtay be built by any intelligent farm hand if he will simply read and follow instructions. Poultrymen differ in regard to the width of a house. Some want a house from twelve to sixteen feet wide so the sun can shine clear to the back of it; other poultry- men want a house from sixteen to twenty- four feet wide so they can house more poultry at practically the same expense. We are showing the general plan and giv- ing the reason why without specifying any special width. It is understood of course that these houses may be any length as one pen is a duplicate of the other all the way through. The front of the house is from eight to twelve feet high, according to the width, but three and one-half feet is high enough for the back of any house, and it is better low because the roosts are placed back here where it is warm in winter and you want a low ceiling to confine the warm air close to the fowls. You can secure ven- tilation by having a warm roost. The body heat of the fowls will warm the air and we all know that heated air is lighter than cold air and for this reason it will follow the slant of the roof upward and cold air will 245 246 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS come in from the front to gradually take its place. In this way you can get a con- stant change of air around the fowls with- out a draft. We have windows in the high front side to admit sunlight and air. Some of the windows are covered with cotton, while remember. Fowls are warmly clothed with feathers and they will stand the cold a great deal better than bad air provided that the cold is dry, and it is understood that the poultry house is dry otherwise it is no good. Another important feature is the kind □ n 7^K<=^^ir i/f^yi / E3£ T^^Eio aox - -^ aATTH Ays-n^ \I 3O'-0' -4f-------=--^=f^===^:=*----------^i^ Lj to'-O' ^1 /O-O' if iO-O' M iltefe Wr- Ai-i- csoA^ «3S73 ^HC TO ac JET- CW DOUBLILO PJ.ANK TKXyriNd!, Ar^D AU. WOOD TSOJSW CWAOE TO OZL coA^rzro y\/JTH TP^n or c^cqsotc rouNOyorr/ON . plan. riil PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 253 The building is sixteen by thirty feet and contains one general room with, a pas- sage, which is also a storeroom for feed, along one side and across one end. All the principal construction details are fully shown in the detail drawings. The house is built principally of two by fours as it is not very large and heavier timber is not necessary. The especial fea- tures are the filling of mineral wool in the partitions for warmth and a slatted ceiling with straw overhead for ventilation with- out drafts and without letting in an un- necessary amount of cold air. This style of a building is somewhat ex- pensive but it is very satisfactory when finished. It is usually considered that any kind of an old shed will do for ducks. In most cases any kind of an old shed is made to answer the purpose, but there is money in the better breeds and to get results it is necessary to keep even ducks with some idea of comfort. Some of the improved varieties bring fancy prices for eggs and young breeding stock, but like other thor- oughbred animals fancy ducks need a lit- tle more attention than little old scrubs that most of us are accustomed to. DOUBLE POULTRY HOUSE— A 154 A small double poultry house is shown in down to the ground at the back, plan (A154). It is twenty-four feet long Inside, the house is practically all one and sixteen feet wide, giving a space of six- room, but a roost curtain may be hung teen by twelve feet to each compartment, with a roller to pull down at night or the It is very simple and it is also cheap and cotton may be tacked on a hinged frame durable. It may be built of matched stuff to let down at night, also one or more of I I. .1 /=>oi/Lr/fy //oc/S£- with the smooth side turned in, or it may be constructed of rough lumber. Of course matched stuff is very much the best as it leaves no harbor for vermin and no lodg- ment for dust. In either case the building is covered outside with tarred paper. The paper is started, in strips, from the eaves in front, carried over the peak and clear the windows may be left open and the spaces covered with cotton. Against the back wall is the droppings board with the roosts above it and the nest boxes underneath. All this furnish- ing is made removable so far as possible for easy cleaning. The apron board in front of the nest boxes lifts out in sections. This building is 68 feet long and 16 feet wide, built on a post foundation, which is enclosed with planking covered with galvanized wire cloth to a depldi of about two feet below the ground, to check the tunneling of rats, etc. Almost every lover &i pt)tilfery has his MODEL CHICKEN HOUSE— Ai 73 own ideas as to how the model chicken house should be arranged and constructed, and every chicken house that is not thus constructed may meet with his severe crit- icism. We will, therefore, not lay stress on any one particular feature of this build- ing but will say that several different ideas VW/V^OW rVZNT suzrr — [C^ASS OO0??3^g^ASS gOOTtSp si nsa^ — SsHOOaV ■r-J 7?oa^ /m-a ,7:CED BO* -TEED SOX W/«e yA^TiTiOf^ t TEED »OX r ^ 77 i; noOM NO.S' "=^ wMjw:_«aS?Z7™i!f_ SirtYOMaLE ROOST3 T^OOAf No.e ~?^ ^ ^ y w//vZ)ov\/ W/A^^OW «*-'■ ^OUTH ^IDE. ELEVATION tS^ ,?rr noor^ /v'o. .£ T=lOOM A/O. / l^OOM A/a 6 NORTH ^IDH E.LE.VATIOM VE^IQN or CniCKEN /iOUS^ PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 255 have been used which may be explained as follows: Rooms Nos. i and 2 (see floor plan) are used together; room i being the scratch- ing room which is used in stormy and win- ter weather for exercise, and room No. 2 is the feed, nest and roost room. The roosts are placed above the nests which have a cover, or roof, pitched so the chickens cannot roost on the nest, but are compelled to get on the roost above. The nests are open in front, having a passage for the chickens, running the full length of each section. The nest sections are re- movable through doors opposite each sec- tion, so they can be easily cleaned and aired; they set on a rack which elevates them about twenty inches above the floor, so the chickens can walk below them where the feed troughs are located, as shown in the section through room No. 2. Room No. 3 is a feed room, 5 feet wide, which contains feed bins for gra:in, meal, etc. To the right (east) of this feed room are rooms 4, 5 and 6. In this scheme, the nest room, 4, is separated from the roost room, 6, one being to the west and the other to the east of the scratching rooms. This may have several advantages over the idea of room i and 2 where the chickens roost and lay in the same room, but it also has some disadvantages, one of which is that a larger building is required for the same number of fowls. The nests of room 4 are so constructed that each nest can be taken out separately. or each entire section can be taken out through doors the same as in room 2. In place of the chicken being in view while on the nest, in room 4 the opening of the nests face the wall, having a dark passage for the chickens. By being out of view they are not frightened while the eggs are being gathered, which is done through a small round hand-hole through the back of the nest. This is covered by a small wooden shutter loosely screwed on over the hand-hole so it will always hang closed. Feed boxes similar to those in room 2, are located along the hallway. Rooms I and 5 have earth floors and boxes filled with dust, for dust baths. All other floors are constructed double, with two inches of mineral wool between them for warmth, as shown in the section. All side walls of the building have heavy building paper both inside and outside of the studding, and the space between is al- so filled with mineral wool. The space between the ceiling and roof is filled with straw during the winter months, and the ceiling boards are spaced half an inch apart to allow a free circu- lation of air through the ceiling and straw. This is brought about by having windows at each end of the building, which are con- trolled by cords. All windows on the north have storm sash for winter. Venti- lation shafts are built in the north wall, with side shutters for admitting fresh air and exhausting foul, air in winter, when all windows are kept closed. SCRATCHING SHED POULTRY HOUSE— Ai 51 A poultry house with an open scratching shed is shown in plan (A151). The house is thirty-four feet long by twelve in width. Poultry men differ about the width of a house constructed in this manner. Some prefer twelve feet because it is easier to get the sunlight clear to the back, as these houses should always front the south. On the other hand men with considerable ex- perience prefer houses sixteen or even twenty feet in width because they can house more fowls for practically the same amount of money. There are many ways of building an open scratching shed and poultry house, but this plan seems to contain about every- thing that is necessary. The door open- ing into the hen-house is just a frame cov- ered with cotton which admits both light and air to the roosts and nest boxes. The outside wire netting may be covered with cotton or not according to the climate and the ideas of the owner. The roofing is tarred paper and it starts at the highest point in front, turns over the upper corner at the back and goes clear 256 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS down to the ground. This makes a thor- than anything else in the poultry line. It oughly wind proof and damp proof house, is easier to build a satisfactory stable for It is a peculiar thing about the damp- any other domestic animal than it is for Q ■S£CT/OA/ £;c£:/^y^T/oAf ness in poultry houses. It is a compara- tively simple question that has bothered poultry men more than anything else. 3^noH NJMO/Ho JO NVt^ yootj Why a poultry house should gather damp- ness and have white frost on the inside when all the stables on the farm are com- paratively dry has bothered more men chickens unless we are satisfied with what is commonly termed a curtain front house. The phrase curtain front simply means that some of the openings are covered with thin cotton instead of glass. It seems to have solved the problem of how to make a chicken house light, airy and dry, but not all curtain front houses work alike. A great deal depends on the head room. A few hens have not body warmth enough to heat a great deal of space. You cannot have good ventilation without heat. The solution seems to be to build a comparatively small house with a low roof. Some poultry men build their curtain front houses as low as two feet at the back and only about six or seven feet high in front. AN A-SHAPED POULTRY HOUSE— Ai 52 An A shaped poultry house is given in plan (A152). This is the cheapest way to build a poultry house. You don't have to It is divided lengthwise with a curtain partition. This curtain is in four foot sec- tions and it rolls up on heavy window BOffffO ^_^- \ r^oo/? /=A/rA/ or //OG //quse: PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 273 good thing about this hog house is the swinging front of the pens which swings back over the trough and prevents inter- ference when putting in the feed. The partitions next to the feed room run to the ceiling but the partitions between the pens are only four feet high. There is no cornice to the roof. The openings above the plates between the rafters are left for ventilation. This hog house will accommodate about forty hogs. From six to eight in a pen are enough, if more are housed together they pile up and smother each other. HOG HOUSE AND CORN CRIB— A140 Hogs and corn may both be kept in. the in the usual way with an alley between, same house economically by building a The floor above to hold the corn slants house like the one shown in plan (A140). each way from the center. There is about -o^£:a^ 14 .J 1.J \XfUs£rcr/o/v If, L J ' I essary to put a slatted partition on both sides of the floor ridge if the house is filled full of corn. There are two windows in each end and the hog doors are hung with pins so they swing either way and the hogs open them going or coming. A pin at the 1 jyj''c^£-^^/r ^osr^ I • I ' Lj lj ter which is done by running the alley par- titions up to the floor joists above. This is very important because the weight of the corn will shove the sides of the build- ing out if the floor is permitted to settle. DOUBLE CORN CRIB— A105 An old fashioned style double corn crib both cribs is shown in plan (A105). This with a drive between and a roof to cover crib is set on cedar posts planted three PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 275 and one-half feet in the ground and set up the doors are built at the end as shown two and one-half feet above ground to be The storage room overhead will be found out of the way of mice and rats. The space useful on any farm. yj-rvsrvas J-r a-e S OF/fOUA//? CO/?A/ C/?/3 feet between the inner strips and the outer again on the curved line. The finished strips and as there is no floor over the girts are about 4x4^ inches. There is joists in the center the air can pass up very little waste. The roof is supporter^ through the three foot ventilator easily, by a similar girt and this upper girt or The round girts may be made in two plate is supported by extending some of 278 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS the one by four pieces above the others as shown in the drawing. These exten- sion strips may be doubled or two by fours used at these places. The crib is twelve feet high to the plate. An air space is left all around and this air space is big enough to shovel corn through. Of course the corn is put in at the door and at the opposite window until the crib is pretty well filled. The roof itself is a very simple affair. It is supported by the plate and the ven- tilator shaft. The roof boards are 12 feet long and cut 11 inches at the wide end and I inch at the upper end or narrow end. These boards are nailed in place and the cracks battened. The center is easily filled in with sheet of galvanized iron having a cut reaching from one edge to the center. Such a roof if kept painted will last a long time. It is very light, cheap and easily made. SINGLE CORN CRIB— A106 Sometimes a single corn crib is prefer- full of holes to help the ventilation but able to a double one. The corn keeps bet- this lets the shelled corn through and as ter in a single crib because the air circu- dirt settles at the bottom the holes get s/rrV'S TO 7"o/» lates all around. Sometimes corn will mould in the center, even in a good crib that is properly constructed and not too •vide. Sometimes farmers bore the floor easily covered over, and it is doubtful if they help very much. A better plan is to have the sides carefully constructed and to have the corn in a good condition when it is put in crib. A crib built after this plan may be any length but the posts should not be more than eight feet apart. CHEAP SMOKE HOUSE— A149 It is not necessary to do without a smoke house on a farm. A small build- ing that will answer the purpose may be had with very little outlay. The plan (A149) shows a little wooden smoke house require with once filling, but it is an easy matter to fill the house the second time if you have the meat. This little house requires no frame work at all. All you need is a four by four for eight by ten feet with sides eight feet high, sills and a two by four for plates and some It is big enough to hold as many hams more two by fours for rafters. You can and shoulders as farmers' families usually even dispense with the rafters, except the PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 279 two end pairs, if you want to make a board enough to keep the meat in after being root. It IS better however to make a good smoked. It is better to wrap it in paper, shmgle roof, then you have something then roll it up in thin cotton and sew it that will last as long as you want it. For £:L£:y-/iT/o/v v- r-o ■A l- ■■ ^^^ \ - ,1 ^ ■■■ /='Z,/fA/ or FLOOff boarding you just take sixteen foot boards and cut them in two in the middle. For the front and back use twelve foot lumber and the waste pieces work in for roof boards if shingles are used. A smoke house like this is not tight up. You musn't leave a place for a fly to crawl in. You must then hang the pack- ages with strings, perfectly free. They must not touch each other and they must not touch anything else. They need a cool place but not damp. CEMENT BLOCK SMOKE HOUSE— A147 Every farm should have a smoke house, the better the house the more satisfactory will be the meat. The plans shown of (A147) is for a house constructed of ce- ment blocks. It should be placed conveni- ently near the house on a raise of ground and a foundation started below the frost line. A treneh should be dug, say iV^ feet deep partly filled with concrete made of one part of Portland cement, two and one- half parts sand and five parts of broken stone or gravel, ramming or puddling care- fully. If plenty sand may be conveniently had, it would be a good plan to secure a block machine and have the blocks made on the ground. In making the concrete blocks, use a mixture of one part Port- land cement, two and one-half parts sand and five parts of crushed stone or gravel. The use of crushed stone or coarse material for the back of the block saves a great deal of cement and at the same time gives a much better block than where sand and cement alone are used. Blocks made of sand and cement alone and merely dampened are not concrete blocks, but on the contrary are simply sand blocks. The very term of concrete sug- gests coarse material and plenty of water. Great care should be taken in mixing the different aggregates and they should be mixed thoroughly dry and after they have been thoroughly mixed add water. After the blocks have been made they should be set aside to be cured, and while cur- ing, they should be sprayed thoroughly a8o PRACTICAL BARN PLANS from seven to ten days. This spraying should commence about twelve hours after the block has been made. Blocks should never be used in building until they are from twenty to thirty days old. Farm cured meats are a great luxury if the hogs are properly grown on pasture. very carefully. The frame must have a couple of ridges all round and cement worked in tight between these ridges to make tight joints. The ventilator on top must be fitted with a fine screen. Two screens would be better. A coarse galvan- ized screen on top and a fine screen inside at the bottom. The plates and rafters must be laid in fresh cement mortar on top of the wall. All spaces between rafters are filled in so as to prevent cracks or openings of any E-LUVATION With a house like this and good pork to start with, a farmer can supply his table with good home-made bacon, hams and shoulders the year round. The best smoke is made from green maple wood. Probably clean corn cobs come next. With a smoke house thor- oughly well built to keep out flies and oth- er insects the meat may be smoked in the spring and left in the smoke house all sum- mer. By way of precaution a very little smoke may be started once or twice a month or some of the meat may be cover- ed with paper and cloth. Very much de- pends on the house. If the house is too dry there will be too much evaporation and the meat will become dry; if the house is too damp it will be inclined to mould. If it is intended to keep the meat in the house after the smoking process is com- pleted it will be necessary to fit the door FUOOH T='U/\N kind. Cross poles to support the meat are made of four by fours with half inch pegs inserted from the sides. The pegs are set at an angle of about thirty degrees. This will permit hanging the pieces of meat in the old fashioned way of cutting a slit in the skin in the bone end. If strings are preferred the same kind of peg may be used. Nails are not to be recommended for this purpose. Farmers living within easy distance of a large city may work up a good trade in farmer cured meats by selling direct to consumers, thereby saving both the pack- er's and grocer's profits. Only thrifty young pigs, not too fat, and in prime con- dition are suitable for a trade of this kind, but farmers have the pick and they may just as well select the best. Every person living in the city enjoys a change in meats as well as in other things. PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 281 CHEAP GRAIN BUILDING— Ai 28 A cheap building to hold grain and corn ing with studding only ten feet long, but is shown in this design. It is a low build- that is about as high as a person cares to :u^^\^L:JKi\^AJ3-\J.^y^- JU■£S\J'^^>^\•^J^.^ l-^val FRorij E-LE.vAyioM. I 1 W T "1 "l /" Y V I • y- L > a. .A* ■ _a D ■ 1 XA/ pitch corn or threshed grain. Just ordin- ary one by four pine strips spaced to Va inch are nailed on the outside of two by four studding to make the corn crib, but the wheat and oat bins of course are made tight all around and a little extra work is put on the floor. There is considerable side pressure in a wheat bin which must be guarded against by using a few extra braces, but heavy timbers are unnecessary in a bin the size of this one. This building may be floored overhead for storage, or the bins may be left open to the roof. By leaving the space open the building will be lighted sufficiently by the small window in each gable. It is not intended to floor the driveway unless it is needed when using a fanning mill to clean grain, but the building would be all the better for having a good solid floor the full size. This plan provides for a building thirty by forty feet. Thirty feet is wide enough for convenience either in building or for use afterwards, but of course it may be any length. 282 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS GRANARY— A107 Farmers have more use for granaries than formerly. There are two reason for this, one is that more stock is kept on the farm and it is necessary to have grain the year round, another is that owing to a shortage of cars and speculation in grain, good mill that will select say one bushel out of ten of the kind of grain that you want to sow and do it while blowing the chaff out of the grain you are sell- ing without interfering with the grade is a valuable mill, but there are just such fan- % ^ lb I 1-1 J prices are not always satisfactory in the fall and it pays to hold grain to sell later. Then, more attention is now being paid to seed. A grain house like this with a place for scales and a fanning mill is a very valuable addition to any farm. The different kinds of grain may be stored in the bins at threshing time and run through the fanning mill when taken to the ware- house for sale. By rigging the mill care- fully a small proportion of the largest, heaviest grains may be retained for seed without adding anything to the cost. A [ 1^-^^ jzxr /i'txv' ■I' £J/rO^ J/^P/AXr .6Xf ning mills made and their cost is little if any more than the common kind on the market. In this scale room wires may be stretch- ed for hanging the empty bags when not wanted. By sinking the scales in the floor each bag may be weighed as it is loaded. This is best done by having a two- wheeled bag truck and a counter weight on the scale beam so that the net weight may be written down each time without taking the time to calculate. Great care should be taken in building PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 283 a granary to have it rat proof. The wall of course must go below the frost and it is a good plan to put a three inch tile all around the bottom on the outside which answers for drainage as well as to keep the house should be set up well from the ground for two reasons, it should be the height of the wagon for easy loading and unloading and it should be high and dry because grain should be kept from all un- rats from burrowing under the wall. Some farmers object to a plaform in front of the door just on account of rats, but if the door is made heavy and made to fit tight with a bit of hoop iron at the bottom, rats will not get in that way if the door is kept shut. It is difficult to arrange a plan of getting in and out conveniently without a plat- form. The door is too high to step up and if you have a kind of stair to reach it you might just as well have a good loading platform as a cheap shaky affair. A grain necessary moisture. There is moisture enough in the air in damp weather any- how without taking chances on moisture from the ground. The doors to the bins are made of loose boards dropped into grooves so that one board may be put in or taken out as re- quired. A little extra expense put into the quality of the flooring is money well laid out. The floor should be free from shake and fairly free from knots, at least there should be no black knots. RAT PROOF GRANARY— A141 Cost of Blue Prints, $5.00 A drv floor and one that is ratproof is cement, three parts sand and four parts made by excavating for the foundation of gravel or broken stone. Fill m with this the granary about six inches deep. Then pound in three or four inches of cinders and lay the sills and joists on the cinders. After the building is up and enclosed make cement concrete by mixing one part concrete to the tops of the joists, then while the concrete is soft put down the matched floor, nailing it right into the soft concrete. As soon as the floor is finished shut the building up tight and bank 284 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS around the outside to keep the air away The matched boarding is put on the out- from the concrete so it will dry slowly. side of the studding and the siding nailed ^/V/P £:i^£t^/^T/OA/ jfX- o •-1 SIN a/A/ a/A/ e/A/ r \ y=i7jj^es a/A/ B/Af e/A/ a/A/ /^Loo/? /'i.ff/v or G/?ffA/ff/fy over that. This is for the purpose of leaving the inside exposed so that a cat or dog could easily reach a rat if it should get inside. Hollow walls make harbors for rats but this construction leaves them no protection. There is a window in the back end of the alley and another one over the door in front. The doors are made heavy and swing out. They close against heavy jambs so that rats and mice have very little encouragement to get in at the door. The scales are let in the floor flush. Pro- vision must be made for this before the concrete is put in. FARM HOUSE WATER SUPPLY UNDER PRESSURE— A226 It is just as easy and just as cheap to have a house water supply under pressure in the country as it is in th€ city because city rents and taxes are sufficient not only to pay for the cost but to make up for the stealings of dishonest municipal employees and the aggregate to the property holders foots up more than the interest on the cost of a sufficient private water supply system in ine country. We now have powerful windmills that will do the pumping and automatically at- tend to the work without very much super- vision and with a very light annual ex- pense for oil and repairs. For extra large houses and where a great deal of stock is kept sometimes a gasoline engine is more satisfactory than a windmill but this is a question to be de- cided by local conditions because either one is all right when properly placed and connected. The very first consideration is a good well. You must have plenty of water at PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 285 all seasons and you must have pure water. It is more difficult to get pure water in the country than it is to get a plentiful supply of, water that is not especially good. The Illinois Sanitary Commission is respon- sible for the statement that most country wells contain disease germs, especially ty- phoid and dyphtheria. There are two kinds of tanks in use ; one is the ordinary elevated windmill tank that is in common use all over the country and the other is the underground pressure tank that has not yet attained universal popu- larity probably because it is new, but the underground tank has many advantages over the other. The water is cool in sum- mer and it does not freeze in winter and the underground tank is cleaner because it is not open to dust and insects. To buy a steel tank to put in the ground seems quite an expense to start with, but it often happens that an unsafe steam boil- er may be bought very cheap for this pur- pose. A boiler maker will take out the old flues, patch the uncertain places and make the old shell perfectly water tight and sat- isfactory in every way. The underground tank should be a little larger than necessary in order to have a safe supply of water at all times. Then you have the air space to figure on as this gives the pressure. You fill the tank about two-thirds or three-fourths full of water, then with an air pump you put on the pres- sure you want, which may be anywhere from ten to forty pounds per square inch.. If your air pump is handy when needed the pressure may be quickly increased to one hundred pounds in case of fire which is an- other advantage of the underground tank system. By having a large tank and a large air space you get a steadier supply because the air pressure does not decrease so fast when you draw oflf water for use. Every new country house should be piped with water and gas. It should be wired with electricity and the plumbing should be equal to any city residence. Farmers are entitled to all the improve- ments going. If they don't have them it is their own fault. SCALE HOUSE— A187 This is a drawing of a good scale house covering an eight by fourteen foot plat- form, four ton scale. The building is fourteen by sixteen feet base with doors twelve feet high, allowing a large load of hay to be driven in upon the scales. The sides of the house are used for hanging and placing tools and other small articles not wanted in the barn. Every up-to-date farm should have a good pair of scales big enough to weigh a load of hay or a drove of hogs or sheep. Enough money is lost on every farm by guessing at weights to pay for a good set of scales, and besides this there is a great satisfaction in knowing what things weigh. In feeding cattle, hogs or sheep for mar- ket, weighing at regular periods is ex- 286 PRACTICAL BARN PLANS tremely valuable. It is impossible to rack high enough to hold horses, strong know whether stock is doing as well as it enough to hold a bull and tight enough for should do unless tab is kept on the increase in weight. After this scale house is built make a good solid rack to surround the scales to pen up stock at weighing time. Make the F»J_AN hogs. Wire fencing may be used to ad- vantage, stretched on to wooden frames. TOWER TANK Where a water pressure is wanted it is often a good plan to put the water tank in the windmill tower. In plan (A145) the tank is shown in the dotted lines. It is placed ten feet above the ground and the tank itself is fourteen feet high by ten feet in diameter at the bottom. HOUSE — A145 In placing a tank like this it is necessary to carry a three inch pipe through the tank and pass the pump shaft through this pipe. The pipe is screwed into a flange at the bottom and the flange is bolted to the bot- tom of the tank to make it thoroughly water tight. The pipe must be steadied PRACTICAL BARN PLANS 287 T/iNK tiOUSS: at the top and the shaft must have a bear- ing, both above the tank and below it so it won't scrape on the pipe. The well and pump of course are directly under the tank in the center of the tower. The outside boarding is made double and lined with paper to be warm in winter. There is generally some drip from a tank placed like this for which reason the room below is seldom made use of for any purpose, but a few farmers have utilized this room for a bathroom. They make a cement bottom with a drain to carry ofif the surplus water and put in a shower bath connected with a pipe from the tank. A shower bath is the most convenient and probably the most healthful of any kind of a bath. At any rate it is easily kept clean. There is no reason why the farmer, or his men should be denied the privilege of get- ting a bath whey they want it. There are bathrooms in almost all city houses and there should be bathing conveniences on every farm. By placing a stove in this room under the tank it could be made com- fortable in winter as well as summer, and a stove with a water heater attached to the tank would give a water pressure so that the shower coiild be made any tem- perature desired. The height of this tower is forty feet to the windmill. Of course, the height of a windmill tower must depend upon its location. If the tower is built on high ground it is not necessary to go up so high unless the windmill is surrounded by high buildings or trees. Index to Practical Barn Plans Number. Pagt. An "A" Shaped Poultry House A152 256 An Ohio Barn A146 154 An Octagon Barn A150 171 Another Cheap Stable A132 210 Another Model Dairy A176 151 Another Double Corn Crib A120 275 Balloon Roofed Barn A143 164 Barn at Mt. Carmel, 111 A195 138 Barn for a Small Farm A160 182 Barn For Dairy Cows A162 132 Barn near St. Francesville, 111 A188 177 Barn with Ell Shed A163 189 Canadian Barn A183 167 Carriage House and Stable A127 225 Cattle Barn A115 191 Cattle Shed A155 243 Cement Block Smoke House A147 279 Cement Rough Cast Barn A182 221 Cheap Cattle Shed A123 243 Cheap Grain Building A128 281 Cheap Hog House A122 271 Cheap Horse Barn A113 209 Cheap Ice House A222 262 Cheap Smoke House A149 278 City Stable for Two Horses Ai 14 203 Combined Barn and Covered Barnyard A102 124 Concrete and Wood Barn A213 195 Convenient Horse Barn A133 200 Cow Barn for Forty Cows A1S9 136 Dairy Bank Barn A125 121 Double Corn Crib A105 274 Double Poultry House A1S4 253 Duck House A 98 251 Eight Horse Stable A124 202 Eighty Acre Farm Barn A211 173 Elevated Chicken House A165 258 English Carriage House A 99 216 Farm House Water Supply Under Pressure A226 284 Feed Lots for Beef Cattle A184 235 Forty Cow Barn A209 143 Granary A107 282 Gothic Barn A181 219 Hay and Grain Barn A167 175 Hexagonal Poultry House A174 249 Hog House A109 272 Hog House and Corn Crib A140 273 Home Dairy A206 153 Horse and Cow House A131 224 Horse Barns 197 Number. Page. Horse Shed A121 226 Ice for Cold Storage A223 260 Implement Shed A148 268 Kelser Barn A189 186 Large Bank Bam A166 157 Large Dairy Stable Aioo 115 Larger Ice House A224 263 -Little Village Stable A135 215 Livery Stable A218 232 Model Chicken House A173 253 Model Cow Barn A158 130 Model Dairy A180 150 Mount Carmel Barn A186 193 Neat Barn for Horses Ais6 207 Open Front Poultry House Alio 249 Open Vehicle Shed A221 269 Pitch of Barn Roofs A228 234 Plain Horse Barn A161 198 Practical Cow Barn A208 141 Practical Poultry House A168 248 Pretentious Stock Barn A179 176 Rat Proof Granary A141 283 Refrigerator Ice House A118 266 Residence Barn A216 230 Round Corn Crib A142 276 Round Dairy Barn A205 126 Scale House A187 285 Scratching Shed Poultry House... Ai 51 255 Separate Horse Barn .A129 213 Serviceable Barn A172 212 Single Corn Crib A106 278 Small Barn for a Village Lot...,. Am 211 Small Barn with Cement Floor. . . .A112 204 Small Chicken House A119 257 Small Farm Barn. A169 184 Small Livery Barn A138 231 Small Poultry House •. -^153 251 Small Suburban Barn A21S 218 Small Wagon Shed A108 271 Southern Cow Barn A207 146 Stable for Twenty-four Cows Aioi 134 Storage Barn — Dairy Stable Wing.Ai36 128 The Best Poultry House A219 245 Three-Story Horse Barn A117 208 Tower Tank House A145 286 Twenty-four Cow Stable A210 139 Two-Hundred Ton Ice House A228 264 Village Stable with Cellar A116 205 Wabash County, 111., Barn A185 178 Well Planned Horse Barn A171 227 Yankee Barn A134 180