Part 3

Each combined pen and shed covers eighteen by ten feet, the curtained-front shed being ten by ten feet, and the roosting-room adjoining being eight by ten feet, room sufficient for twenty-five to thirty fowls of the American or thirty-five to forty of the Mediterranean varieties. No “walk” is required because the walk is through gates and doors, from shed to pen and pen to shed, and so on to the end of the house and out the other end. The much-desired ventilation of the poultry house is very varied in this plan, at the discretion and according to the judgment of the operator, and can be adapted to the different seasons in half a dozen different ways. In summer the doors and windows are all wide open and the curtains are hooked up against the roof out of the way. (It is to be remembered that the doors between two pens are never to be left open when there are birds in the pens, they are always kept closed except when opened for the attendant to pass through from one pen to another). When the nights begin to be decidedly frosty in the fall close the windows in the fronts of the roosting pens, but leave shed-curtains hooked up and doors between pens and sheds open. When it begins to freeze nights close the curtains (at night) in fronts of sheds, but still leave doors between pens and sheds open. These doors (including the slide door) are never closed excepting on nights of solid cold, say when the thermometer runs five to twenty degrees below zero; and for real zero weather, from five above to away below zero, close the curtains in front of roosts and all doors and windows are closed. An additional protection against cold in extremely cold latitudes would be to double-wall the back of the roost-pen, from the sill up to plate and then up the roof-rafters four feet, packing the spaces between the studs and rafters with planer shavings, straw, swale hay, or seaweed (the latter is vermin-proof), then have a hinged curtain to drop down to within about six inches of front of roost platform, and extending a foot below it; this curtain we would close only on the very coldest nights.

We would build this house seven feet high in front and five feet high at the back. Sills and plates are all of two by four scantling, halved and nailed together at joints. The rafters, corner studs, and studs in centers of fronts of sheds are all two by four; the intermediate studs are two by three. Set the sills on stone foundation a foot and a half above the ground level, or on posts set into the ground below the usual frost line, the posts being set five feet apart excepting in front of roosting pens (where they come four feet apart)—there being a post at corner of each pen and shed, with one between. The rafters should be two feet between centers; as lumber comes twelve, fourteen, or sixteen feet in length, and two-feet-apart rafters allow the lumber to be used with almost no waste. The sills we would set a foot and a half above average ground level. When set on posts put hemlock (or some hard wood) boards from bottom half of sill down to ground, nailing them firmly to sill and foundation posts; then fill up inside to bottom of sills and slope the ground outside to same height, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Toe-nail studs to sills firmly, plates to studs ditto, and rafters to plates. Set the studs in front of roosting pens to take the window frames (or the window sash, if no frames are used), and in partitions a stud should be set to take the two and one half feet wide doors and gates. All of the framing is simple and easy, and any man who can saw off a board or joist reasonably square and drive nails straight can build this house; the slight bevel at each end of rafters being perfectly simple. All boarding is lengthwise, the boards firmly nailed and good joints made all over. Cover the roof and sides with Paroid, and the house will be wind and waterproof.

THE ALL-OPEN-FRONT POULTRY HOUSE

This “Fresh Air Poultry House” has been evolved by Mr. Joseph Tolman, a practical poultryman of eastern Massachusetts, some twenty-five miles south of Boston, and differs from most other plans in that the front is wide open night and day all the year around; the south front is always open, being closed by one-inch mesh wire netting only.

The roof and sides are one inch boards nailed to two by four inch rafters and studs, and covered with sheathing paper and two-ply Paroid; this makes a tight roof, and east, west, and north walls, excepting that there is a window in the center of the west side and a door opposite it, in center of east side. In operating this house in summer both the door and window are removed and wire netting tacked to a light frame set in the places; for convenience we recommend that the door-screen be hinged to outside of door frame, and when not in use hooked back against the wall. There are many nights in spring and fall when it is desirable to leave the door open excepting that the opening is closed by the wire screen, and possibly the very next night it is better that the door be closed; having the door-screen hung to the wall enables adapting to weather changes at will.

The house here shown is made eight by fourteen feet in size, four feet to eaves and seven feet to apex of roof, and makes a fine home for twenty-five fowls; a larger size of this house is recommended to be made twenty-one by fourteen feet on the ground, with five feet posts in north and south ends and eight feet to apex of roof; this would comfortably house fifty head of layers.

2. BARNS, STABLES, ETC.

There is a very great diversity in plans of barns and stables, the taste of individual owners seeming to favor this or that plan, which they think is best adapted to their needs. Observation of various types of farm buildings, however, will convince the thoughtful man that too often a single point of convenience is magnified till other points are wholly obscured, and to secure the one advantage several decided conveniences are sacrificed; in a study of conveniences all possible points should be considered and a decision arrived at which will give the greatest and sacrifice the least number.

Talking with a dairy farmer living in central New York, who had just completed a dairy barn which cost him about three thousand dollars, he told that he had waited a dozen years to build that barn, and had studied and figured to get the two most important conveniences of a cement floor to preserve the liquid manure and a drive-way onto the main floor; to get those he had let go one or two others which he considered of far less importance, and had at last got a barn exactly to his liking. One of the conveniences which he had let go was a covered-way to the barn, and this one point is considered of so great importance by many that almost everything else is sacrificed to gain it. We were discussing this point with a farmer whose barn was about a hundred and fifty feet away from his house, and he was positive that the advantage of having the barn near to and connected with the dwelling house was over-estimated; that there were but a very few days in a year when the covered-way was of so great advantage, and there were decided advantages in having the barn a little distance from the house,—among them absence of barn-odors, flies, and noises. With the barn off a little distance he avoids those, and gains the (to him) great advantage of a drive-way onto the main floor, a fine basement for composting the manure and housing the farm carts, etc., and a drive-way out of the basement with only an insignificant rise to the level of the fields.

This same farm-barn had one defect, to remedy which we offered the suggested shed shown in Fig. 35. The barn extended very nearly east and west, consequently the linter door was exposed to the cold west and northwest winds of winter, and during the winter the farmer wanted his cows to have the exercise-room of the barn yard on the south side of the barn. To overcome the difficulty we suggested an open-front shed along the west side of the barn yard, and a covered-in walk down from the linter door to the shed; as subsequently built the shed was extended five feet beyond the corner of the barn, so as to cover the linter door, and a broad door in the shed-end gave out to the lane leading to the pasture. By closing that broad door in the end of the shed and opening a gate to the barn yard a covered-way was made for the cows to pass from the linter to the barn yard, without being exposed to the cold winds of winter, and gaining the complete shelter of the shed on the west; a simple expedient, and yet a very decided convenience.

Driveways onto two or more different floors of a barn or stable are most substantial aids to the economical doing of the farm work. On a large Essex county (Mass.) farm which we recently visited a new hay-barn was being erected, the site for it being especially selected so that an easy grade could be built to the top floor, permitting the hay wagons being driven into the top of the barn, under the high roof, and all the hay was pitched off and down into the twenty-feet deep mows. A recent letter says: “The new barn is practically done, and already some twenty loads of hay are in one corner of it. We find it a great saving of labor; four men in the barn will take better care of the hay and keep ahead of the gang in the field easier than seven men and a horse could put it into the top of the barn with a fork.” A second drive-way leads out of the ground floor of this barn to the high road, practically on a level, and a third out of the west end of the basement, whence an easy grade rises to the farm roads. By these convenient driveways much hard work is eliminated—a most important point in these days of growing scarcity of farm help. Because of this great scarcity of help, especially of dependable help, it is a necessity that the farmer take advantage of every convenience, or labor-saving device, which will aid him in his work; it is both good economy and good business policy for him to do so.

We have thought it wise to give here a few simple, practical plans, which have approved themselves in everyday use. Barns and stables need not be expensive in construction nor elaborate in fittings; the important considerations are the comfort of the animals, the convenience of the owner and the adaptability of the building to its purpose.

In Figs. 36, 37, and 38 we give a plan for a village stable, for the man who keeps a horse and one or two cows, and the ground floor also provides room for the work-bench (which is most desirable where there are boys in the family), besides standing room for the carriage, wagon and sleigh.

This stable is planned to be twenty-six feet long by eighteen feet wide, is ten feet from floor level to eaves, and fourteen feet from floor to ridge of roof. More pitch can be given to roof if desired, but with a good roofing like Paroid the roof slope may be slight. It would be better to make the walls two feet higher if more storage space is desired above the scaffold floor. The doorway is eight by eight feet, and stall space eight by eight feet is made in each front corner; a box stall is provided for the horse and two cow stalls in the left-hand corner, with a small door opening into the cow linter. Hay scaffolds seven feet above the floor extend across each end and may be joined at the rear if desired; a scaffold floor above the large doors extends from front to rear, or to the drop-scaffold walk connecting the two side scaffolds at the rear. A basement six or seven feet deep under the whole is a valuable addition to such a stable, making room for storing and rotting the manure, and a storage room for roots, etc., in one corner.

Six-inch-square sills, posts, and floor stringers are amply strong for the strain usually put upon a small stable, and the center posts, set at corners of box stall and cow stalls, help carry the main floor and the storage floor above. If preferred, the intermediate posts may be set in the center and the stall-spaces extended a foot, making them eight by nine feet. With the roof covered with Paroid Roofing, and the sides with Neponset Red Rope Roofing battened on laps and halfway between laps, a very neat and economically constructed stable is made. If desired a richer appearance may be given to the roof by adding the ornamental battens shown on page 28 and painting the whole a dark red.

The farm-barn is a most important aid to economy of labor, if rightly planned, and we give on this page the plans of a small barn, for a farm where eight or ten cows are kept, such as is quite common in New England and the Middle States, and which gives excellent satisfaction everywhere. On the farm where this plan was studied the pair of horses were housed in a small horse barn nearer the dwelling house, the Democrat wagon, canopy top carriage and sleigh, etc., being under the same roof.

This barn is forty-four feet long by thirty-four feet wide, and is built in four “bays” of eleven feet in length each. The main floor is twelve feet wide, and hay wagons drive in at either end and out at the other. The cow stalls occupy all of the linter on the south side, a door at the end opening into the lane to the pasture. The first bay on the north side is ceiled up with tongued and grooved boards, has a tight floor overhead, and is used as a grain storeroom; the other three bays on that side are hay mows from floor to roof.

Over the main floor and fifteen feet above it is a floor for hay, or corn, or used for general storage at different seasons. There was no floor on the collar-beams when the present owner bought the farm. Strong poles had been laid across the space and surplus hay thrown on them; since being floored over the owner says it is the best part of the barn, and invaluable for drying out crops not fully cured. A basement about six feet in depth receives the manure from the cows, and three or four logs have the run of the cellar and manure heaps, thoroughly rotting and “fining” the manure for the next season’s crops.

The frame of this barn is of eight-inch square hemlock timber, the braces three by four inch hemlock mortised into posts and stringers, the floor stringers three by nine inches, two feet apart and well cross-bridged, the floor of three-inch plank. The scaffold floor is of inch boards laid on two by six inch stringers three feet apart, and is amply strong for any load put upon it.

Grain bins along two sides of the grain room may be four feet wide, and, fitted with drop fronts may be five feet high and divided into two or more compartments. Two small bins may be fitted in each side of the window; the window may be in the end if preferred.

A COMPLETE DAIRY BARN

Modern dairy farming means an up-to-date dairy barn, and we give herewith the plans of one which is warmly endorsed by the owner and carries fifty cows in perfect comfort. This is a truss-frame barn, ninety-three feet long by forty feet wide, the basement (or ground) floor being wholly occupied by cow stalls and calving pens, the main floor being a hay-storage room. Two bays on one side are used for grain storage, all the remainder of the bays on both sides being for hay; a drive-way fifteen feet wide extends through this floor, and inclined driveways at each end give access from the fields in either direction.

The ground floor is concrete throughout. A walk five feet wide extends along each side and cross walks three feet wide are between each row of stalls at both front and rear, one for breeding and the other for the cows and the milkers. A shallow gutter, eighteen inches wide by six inches deep, extends along the rear of the stalls to receive the droppings and urine, which is removed twice a day and drawn at once to the fields or heaped for tramping over and rotting under wide-roofed sheds. The calving stalls, four at each end of this floor, are eight by seven and three quarters feet in size, and one or two of them can be occupied by bulls, if desired.

The watering system may be either a wooden gutter extending along the front of each row of stalls or a cast-iron semicircular pan set between each pair of stalls so as to supply a cow on either side. Whether troughs or pans are used there should be an automatic cock and tank, which keeps the water always at the desired level, and check valves which prevent the water once in the trough or basin returning to the pipe and contaminating others.

All the food is stored on the main floor, whence convenient chutes convey it to feeding troughs or push-carts on the walks below. The ensilage from the silo is loaded directly into the push-carts just outside the door, or could be chuted to the walk inside. The soiling crops fed in summer are cut up on the main floor and sent down to the waiting push-carts in the walks below. The roof and sides of this barn are covered with Paroid roofing.

The tying arrangement may be either chains, straps, or swing stanchions as desired, and all three methods are in use on up-to-date dairy barns. The stock kept may have an influence upon the length of the stalls; those given are seven and one half feet long by three feet three inches wide.

A STABLE FOR A SUBURBAN PLACE

A convenient and well-arranged stable is greatly appreciated, and we present plans for a stable for four horses, with carriage room, harness room, man’s room, etc., hay-loft, platform for drying the bedding, and other accessories of a modern stable for a suburban home. It is built without cupola or other ornamental features, is just a plain, simple stable.

This building is forty-four by twenty-four feet in size, the sides and roof rough boards covered with Paroid Roofing. There is a basement under the whole.

The walls and ceiling of the entire lower floor are sheathed with hard pine, a wooden partition separating the stalls from the carriages, and abundant windows give light and air to all parts. The ventilation of the horse room is such that no gases reach the carriages, and “Hydrex” waterproofing felt between the floorings of the carriage room cuts of the steam and gases from the manure pit. The iron gutter along the rear of the stalls is covered with maple or birch plank, and the stall floors are either maple or birch. Running water is piped to the water basin in the horse room, and a hose cock on the other side of the partition receives the hose for washing carriages, or a revolving, overhead hose-fixture can be installed, just above the washing floor, if desired. A hot-water heater may be installed on the main floor, but better be in the basement, where the coal bin would be; radiators may be set as desired, with one at least in rear of the box stall and one on the carriage floor, and a small one in the man’s room on second floor. The roof is drained by galvanized iron pipes emptying into blind wells. The carriage room floor is concreted, and a drain pipe leads from the depression where carriages are washed to a blind well. At one end is a platform for drying the bedding, and ventilation is so well provided for there are almost no odors. As it is planned this is a practical, convenient, well-arranged stable, adapted to the needs of a family of moderate means on a suburban place.

A COMBINED HORSE AND COW STABLE

AS DESIGNED FOR C. H. LINVILLE, ESQ., BALTIMORE, MD.

Desiring a stable which would give him room for four cows, three horses and carriage room under one roof, Mr. C. H. Linville, of Baltimore, Md., wrote and asked about enlarging the plan of a stable for a suburban place, and wished to place the carriage room at the other end of the stable, because the slope of the ground was such as to favor getting the basement under that end in the location on which he desired to build; the result was a re-drawing of that plan and presenting it as given herewith. A comparison of these two plans will aid any intending builder to change and adapt to his especial purpose such plan as he prefers, but which may not be, as here presented, the best for him.

This stable is planned to be forty-eight feet long by twenty-five feet wide, outside measure, and the space is so divided there is a good seven by ten feet box stall and a good harness room in the horse apartment; in the west end a grain room ten by twelve feet gives space for four grain bins and the stairway up to loft opens out of this room. The carriage room is sixteen by twenty-five feet, and the manure pit is in the basement beneath this room; to prevent the escape of ammonia from the manure pit into the carriage room a good cement floor should be laid down.

This building is planned to be fourteen feet high to the plates and twenty feet to the ridge, which gives liberal hay-lofts; should more hay space be thought desirable we would carry side walls to sixteen or eighteen feet height, six feet, or even five feet of height from plates to ridge gives ample slope to roof where Paroid is the roof covering. An ornamental cupola could easily be placed at the junction of the roof of the gable with the main roof, and would aid in the ventilation of the hay-loft.

The partitions between the different divisions and about the stalls give ample opportunity for studs to be set to support the hay-loft floor excepting in the clear span over the carriage room, and the floor stringers there should be doubly heavy to support the weight over so large a space. Another way to gain the desired strength here would be to tie the roof-rafters securely and carry the strain on hangers dropped from the ridge; the three or four hangers necessary would interfere but slightly with the hay storage space.

AN ATTRACTIVE DAIRY BARN

Sometimes it is desired to have more attractive looking buildings than the severely plain ones seen on many farms, and to illustrate the decidedly attractive appearance which can be given to buildings which are covered with Paroid roofing, we have had prepared plans of a dairy barn and a village stable, with the roofs treated with ornamental battens and the whole roof painted with a dark green or red paint, which gives the rich effect of copper sheathing and is most pleasing to the artistic eye. A cross-section of the battens we recommend are given here. Paroid can be laid more rapidly when battens are used, and enough labor is saved to pay for the slight extra cost of the battens.