JHHL, THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES FARM BUILDINGS WITH PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS BY HERBERT A. SHEARER AGRICULTURIST ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO FREDERICK J. DRAKE & CO. PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1917 By FREDERICK J. DRAKE & CO. Printed in the U. S. A. Arcfcftecfure Urban Planning CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE ECONOMY OF GOOD FABM BUILDINGS 7 CHAPTEB II Two KINDS OF BABN CONSTBUCTION 10 CHAPTEB III HOBSE AND COW BABN 16 CHAPTEB IV ENLABGED DAIBY AND HORSE BABN 23 CHAPTEB V DAIRY BARN FOB TWENTY-EIGHT Cows 33 CHAPTEB VI DAIBY BARN FOB THIBTY Cows 43 CHAPTER VII MONITOR ROOF DAIBY STABLE 49 CHAPTEB VIII NEW MODELS FOB FABM BABNS 62 CHAPTER IX MISCELLANEOUS FARM BUILDINGS 71 CUAPTEB X "Hoc HOUSES FOB WINTER AND SUMMER 112 I 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER XI PAGE POULTRY, POULTRY HOUSES AND POULTRY FURNITURE 124 CHAPTER XII CONCRETE ON THE FARM 151 CHAPTER XIII COMFORTABLE FARM HOMES 160 CHAPTER XIV DICTIONARY OF BUILDINGS AND ARCHITECTURAL TERMS 23C INDEX . . 253 FARM BUILDINGS CHAPTER I ECONOMY OF GOOD FARM BUILDINGS The first farmers in the middle west threshed grain and piled it upon the ground because they had no barns, granaries or warehouses. It was hauled to rail- way tracks and shoveled into box cars at the first opportunity. Box cars were not always available, the weather was uncertain, and the losses always fell on the farmer. There were no cattle to use the straw, so it was burned to get it out of the way. The farmer's life represented years of incessant toil interspersed with every kind of losses that pioneering imposes. The only excuse the early pioneers had for not starving to death was the wonderful productivity of the virgin soil. To grow a profitable crop, a farmer must devote time, knowledge and experience to the work. It means years of partial failures in the process of learning how. The present crop is produced by days of labor in pre- paring the land, planting seed, and nursing the crop through to a successful harvest. When the crop is finally secured, large barns are needed to take care of the grain and the straw with the necessary stable room for live stock to make proper use of the grain that is 7 8 FARM BUILDINGS not sold. To care for domestic animals properly, not only stabling is necessary, but storage for roughage in silos and mows, also rat-proof granaries, ventilated corn cribs, and labor-saving machinery to help with the chores. Saving the waste makes the profit. In all kinds of manufacturing, the by-products are carefully saved and worked into salable merchandise. Farming is, or should be, a great manufacturing business so carefully conducted that no by-product is permitted to go to waste. The land provides the raw materials and the buildings are the factories where the cheap grains and fodders are changed into high-priced butter, pork, eggs, beef, mutton, etc. Farmers who try to farm without sufficient factory buildings must sell their raw materials and let the next fellow make the profit. No farmer ever made money by growing grain and burning the straw, although he may have gathered a few dollars by robbing the land. There are instances where straw may be worth more than the grain. In every case it is a valuable by-product, if the farmer has the necessary machinery to work it up. It does not pay to grow corn, sell the grain and let the weather take the substance out of the stalks. A crop worth growing is worth housing. The stalks are about half the value of the corn crop. When this half is wasted, it is more than half because the cost of grow- ing the whole crop must be charged against the half that is saved. No business except farming could stand such a loss. No farmer can afford to. A manufac- turer would have to settle with his creditors, and the merchant caught wasting half his substance would be sent to an asylum for brain treatment. FARM BUILDINGS 9 THE COST OF BUILDING I am often asked to give the cost of building a house or barn of a given size and plan, but it is impossible to do so, for the following reasons : In some parts of the country carpenters may be employed at two dollars per day, while in other sec- tions they get seven. One farmer may have a good gravel pit on his farm so he can haul it to the building site at odd times at little or no extra expense. Another farmer, wishing to put up the same kind of building in another county, would pay two dollars per yard for sand or aggregate at the car and haul it several miles. Prices of lumber and other building materials also vary in different parts of the country. Therefore any general estimate would prove misleading. CHAPTER II TWO KINDS OF BAEN CONSTRUCTION Two ways of building the same kind of barn are shown in Figures 1 and 2. The first is the old style timber frame barn and the other shows the newer plank frame construction. Both barns are serviceable. Both have stood and protected animals and fodder during the heavy storms CC035 SECTION Figure 1. Cross Section of Old Style Timber Frame Barn, 42 Feet in Width of winter and summer. It is largely a question of preference when deciding which kind to build. One farmer, who was preparing to build wrote in this way : "I am interested in barn roofs and I don 't, 10 FARM BUILDINGS 11 remember having seen the .question of stresses in a gambrel-shaped roof fully discussed as to whether it has any advantages over the old style of gable-end roof." Probably thousands of farmers have asked the same question since the curb roof became popular, and to f: Pig. 2. Cross Section of Dairy Barn, 42 Feet Wide, Showing Plank Frame Construction Truss. The Building is Wider on Account of the Central Alleyway to Make Room for the Manure Spreader Drawn by Four Horses answer it fully I have made drawings showing the old and the new and shall give reasons for the change in style and manner of construction. Probably few carpenters have ever correctly figured the different strains that the roof trusses of a gambrel roof barn are called upon to resist. The combination of different angles connecting at many different points 12 FARM BUILDINGS complicates the problem of calculation beyond the capabilities of ordinary mathematicians. But common practice has settled on certain sizes, angles, propor- tions, lengths of rafters and braces, sizes of dimension stuff and roof pitches that have stood the tests of wind pressure, rain and heavy loads of snow for fifteen or twenty years. Figure 1 shows an old fashioned timber frame barn with a straight gable-end roof, built in the usual way. Figure 2 shows the modern plank frame construction with a curb roof. Both barns are forty-two feet wide to provide room for a wide driveway through the center of the cow stable for the manure spreader drawn by four horses. Figure 3 shows the floor plan. Because of the extra width the lower rafters of the plank frame barn are longer than usual. When the cows face in, and manure carriers are provided, the width of the barn usually is thirty-six feet. The storage capacity under a barn roof depends upon the height above the plates. In this timber frame barn we get a height of fourteen feet, while the plank frame barn roof rises twenty-four feet above the plates. Other advantages of plank frame construction are the ease of building up timbers of any size or strength required by adding planks. Planks are carried in stock by all lumber yards, but timbers often require special orders which cause delays, special trips and extra cost The upper roof lies low to catch little wind pressure. This portion of the roof receives less rain water and is short ; therefore it may have a low pitch. It dumps FARM BUILDINGS 13 14 FARM BUILDINGS its supply of water onto the steeper slope of the lower roof to be disposed of quickly. The curb strengthens the roof to the extent of eliminating the purline plates and their supporting posts. A plank frame barn is built of trusses reaching from one sill to the other, each half truss is opposed to and supports or braces its mate through their connection at the apex, somewhat on the cantilever principle. Planks are lighter than timbers and more easily handled. They are held at the lumber yards until partly seasoned, so they are easily worked. Less mate- rial is required for plank frame construction because the planks are doubled, trebled or used singly, and they vary in width according to the strength required. A plank barn frame is easily and quickly spiked and bolted together and the work is so simple that any farm hand can follow instruction from the boss car- penter. One skilled mechanic and one or two handy men will do all of the necessary squaring and beveling of plank ends and the spiking and bolting in a short time, and they will do the raising with the aid of an improvised derrick. Plank frame construction has completely discouraged the old fashioned "raisin* bee." Storage for large quantities of roughage is more of an object than formerly, because live stock is kept in greater numbers. Barn lofts free from center posts and cross timbers may be filled easily by horsepower or engine power, and the fodder may be dug out in winter with the same machinery. Thresher blowers are directed into a hay door to fill one end of the big mow with straw for winter bedding. Hay tipples are FARM BUILDINGS 15 used to dump fork loads or sling loads of hay over against either side of the mow to save hand labor. Hay tipples require a clear space from one end of the barn to the other, and to make them profitable the barn must have both height and width. Another rea- son for the popularity of curb roof barns is that most farmers like their appearance. CHAPTER III HOESE AND COW BAKN The most popular kind of barn on American farms is a combination horse and cow stable with large stor- age for grain and roughage overhead. Most farmers keep both horses and cows. "When the new barn is planned it sometimes seems best to make it enough longer to also stable the horses, as the ex- pense is likely to be but little more and all the chores may then be done under one roof. This barn shown in Figure 4 is intended to, stable nineteen cows and six horses, in the regular stanchions and stalls, and there is a rather large box stall that may be used for a bull pen or for calves. There may come times when it will be needed as a hospital stall, although as a general thing it is better to remove sick animals to another building. There are roller doors to shut off the horse stable from the cow department and these doors are kept shut except at stable cleaning time. Dairy rules and some dairy laws require that dairy stables shall be separate from all other departments of the farm. The object is to prevent the milk from being contaminated by harmful bacteria. There should be no open doorways between the two stables. House flies breed in horse manure and they are the dirtiest and filthiest of all our common insects. 16 FARM BUILDINGS 17 flH- WH- IS FARM BUILDINGS FARM BUILDINGS 19 Milk inspectors don 't like to see house flies floating in a pail of milk. It is an indication of poor management. Ventilation is another sanitary requirement. Old Figure 6. End Elevation of a Typical Curb-Roof Dairy Stable and Storage Barn. The Concrete Foundations Extends 3% Feet Above Grade timber frame barns boarded up and down are pro- vided with ventilation by the shrinkage of the boards. But a modern air-tight building like this that is built to house pure bred cows comfortably in winter must 20 FARM BUILDINGS have an automatic supply and discharge of air work- ing continuously night and day so long as the stable is occupied. *e,~-#'-6"6r<4 M9n \ctted to fAch Jf of rafters ftvrt 3/>actc( 4 Figure 7. Cross Section of Curb-Roof Dairy Barn, Showing Rafter Construction and Bracing In this cow barn the supply of fresh air is taken in through supply pipes placed in the outside walls. Reg- isters placed between the stable windows admit air from the outside and the intake pipes distribute the air at the stable ceiling where it flows out over the cows. FARM BUILDINGS 21 Outlet ventilator pipes also are built into the walls to draw the foul air out and discharge it through the metal ventilator hoods perched on the peak of the roof. Outlet ventilator pipes when properly proportioned and well made act like chimney flues. The draft depends upon the propensity of warm air to go up. Tho stable is warmed by the body heat of the animals. Fresh air thus admitted from outdoors loads up with impurities and settles near the floor towards the outer v/alls where the outlet openings are placed. It is important that the outlet flues be made tight to prevent leakage of cold air into the pipes, because cold air has a tendency to go down into the stable. Metal pipes radiate heat in cold weather which interferes with the draft by reducing the temperature. Wooden pipes are better than metal if they are made with tight joints. Wall board is used with success. Wall board is cut in long lengths the right width and is nailed to wooden corner strips two by two inches in diameter. All joints are cemented so there is no opening except the inlet at the bottom and the outlet at the top. Wall board should be made in cylindrical form for such purposes. Outlet ventilator pipes in a stable of this size should be about twenty inches square, inside measurement, or eighteen inches in diameter if made round. Inlet ventilators are more numerous and they may be smaller in size. Inlet supply flues do not depend upon temperature to create a draft. The wind will drive through the intakes. For this reason they should be fitted with sliding gates to regulate the openings. It is necessary to regulate the supply of air according to the weather. This is just as important as to regu- 22 FARM BUILDINGS late the supply of feed. If the outlet flues are well made and properly proportioned they will work auto- matically, but the intakes must be watched. Some metal ventilator hoods help the draft by directing the wind currents upward to create suction. Aspiration, or the passing of a current of air across the open top of a pipe, also helps to create an upward draft. Figure 8. Concrete Dairy Stable^and Concrete Barnyard The fences are not shown. The barnyard is paved with concrete laid on two levels. A fence confines the cows to the paved yard during muddy weather. There are feed racks to use when needed, and there are open sheds to the left. A good demonstration of the impor- tance of concrete in modern dairy farming. CHAPTER IV A LARGE DAIRY AND HORSE BARN This combination dairy and horse barn is scienti- fically correct in principle and detail of construction and equipment according to the dictates of modern dairy knowledge and practice. From the excavations to the peak of the roof, and from the silos at one end of the barn to the manure shed at the other end every detail of plan and eleva- tion has been tried out repeatedly and finally adopted into the barn that is represented by Figures 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. Concrete Foundations. It is easy to make a con- crete foundation for a farm building where the mate- rials may be cheaply obtained. The wall footings are laid deep enough to reach below frost. For* this reason climatic conditions are always considered when making a foundation. ' ' Foot- ing" is the builder's term for the wide base of a wall and it means permanency. When the earth bank is dug square, straight and plumb, the inside wooden form only is necessary up to the surface of the ground. This form is made of material that is afterwards used in the building. Con- crete is heavy and it should be tamped, which brings considerable pressure against the form. A neat finish on the outside of the wall above 23 FARM BUILDINGS FARM BUILDINGS 25 B f II i! II FARM BUILDINGS PANEL BETWEEN TEU55E5 Figure 11. Detail Showing the Plank Frame Construction of Dairy Barn Shown in Figure 9 ground, whether simply a foundation wall or a base- ment, means a good deal in the appearance of the building. It costs but little more to set a building up high enough to make a basement. A foundation wall is usually three and a half feet, while a base- FARM BUILDINGS 27 ment wall is about eight feet or eight feet, six inches, according to the use for which the basement is in- tended. It costs little more to make the inside form high enough for a basement wall. The same may be said of the outside form, because even a foundation wall is carried up above the surface of the ground and Figure 12. Cross Section this requires some kind of outside form. Both forms are made level and true on top so that the finished wall is struck off even. In mixing materials for a basement wall, a great deal of stone should be used. Stone is handled more quickly than concrete, and it makes a stronger wall 28 FARM BUILDINGS when stones are used and well surrounded with thin concrete that fills the crevices and sticks to the stones. The one rule in mixing concrete that applies in all cases is to use a little more than enough cement to fill the spaces between the grains of sand, and a little more Figure 13. Detail Showing the Way One of the Main Trusses is Constructed. A Truss Like This is Placed Every 12 Feet In the Length of the Barn to Act as a Stiffener. Between These Trusses the Rafters are Braced in the Ordinary Plank Frame Manner. than enough sand and cement to fill the spaces between the particles of gravel or aggregate, and lastly, use a wet mixture of cement, sand and aggregate to bind together the larger stones used in the wall. This is easily and quickly done by first placing a layer of stone to start the bottom of the wall, placing the stones so that they touch each other. Then, dump in soft concrete sufficient to fill all the spaces between and to cover the stones with a layer of concrete an FARM BUILDINGS 29 inch deep or more. Then another layer of stones is piled in, and the concrete added as before. The larger stones, of course, should be selected for the bottom of the wall, where it widens out to make the footing. Each layer of stones and cement should be tamped. If the stones are joggled with the tamper the air is forced out, the cement settles around and adheres to the stones and makes a better wall. Above ground a crow bar is used to pry the stones so that the concrete mortar will make a smooth surface. Provision is made for placing the basement windows after the inside form -is anchored. The easiest way is to mark on the form where the window frame should be placed. When the cement work is up to the bottom of the window sills then the frames are set on the fresh cement and are tacked to the inside form with eight penny nails from the inside. It is difficult to work the concrete around under the window sill if the frames are put in position too soon. The frames work better if they are made the full thickness of the wall so that they fit between the inside and outside forms. A neat window casing is then easily fitted and nailed against the window frame flush with the surface of the wall. The outside form is held in place by wires. When the wall is complete the wires are cut close to the wall. To make a neat finish the wall is troweled over with cement mortar. The sooner this is done after the concrete wall has set the better it will stick. Usually it is good practice to embed the sills in fresh cement mortar on top of the wall as soon as the concrete is hard enough. The sills should remain in place undis- turbed for a few days before nailing the .ioists and. 30 FARM BUILDINGS studding to them. Fresh concrete is easily injured by pounding. Plank Frame Construction. The best and cheapest way to build the superstructure of a barn is to make the frame of two-inch planks. Plank frame construction was adopted because planks are carried in stock in all lumber yards, but timber must be ordered from a saw mill. Special orders cause delay and add to the expense. The advantages of these skeleton frames developed with use. Two-inch pieces from two by fours up to the largest planks are easily handled. They are put together in twos, threes, or thicker in the making of strong girders where strength is needed, and they are stretched out singly and opposed in pairs in truss work. Great arches are formed by meeting two trusses together at the apex. Two men are sufficient at a plank frame "raising" unless greater speed is wanted. Ventilation. I>omestic animals require fresh air every minute, pure water several times a day and food at frequent intervals. They would die in five minutes without air. With plenty of fresh air they could live a week without water. If supplied with air and water they might live several weeks without food. This means that pure air is of more importance than both food and water. Pure water is of more importance than food. But all three are necessary to promote profitable growth and development. To provide proper ventilation this barn is fitted with intake air ducts and large outlet ventilators. The intakes are placed along the sides of the building FARM BUILDINGS 31 and the ventilator flues start up from the four cor- ners of the stable. The system spreads fresh air all through the stable. The body heat of the animals keeps it in motion. As it loads up with carbonic acid gas it becomes heavier and settles near the floor in the coldest corners of the big stable. There is a draft up through the out take flues which carries it out and discharges it through the ventilator hoods on the peak of the roof. Milking Machinery. Milking machines are great labor savers. One man can attend to three or four machines and each machine is capable of milking six or eight cows per hour. A battery of three machines will require one horsepower but it is better to provide two horsepower so that additional machines may be added without changing the engine. Milking machines are simple in operation and easily managed but some knowledge of the principles upon which they operate is necessary to keep them in good working order. Manure Carriers. Labor saving machinery to han- dle manure commences by taking the liquids and the solids from behind the cows. The manure is dumped automatically into the spreader from which it is unloaded and spread by horsepower in the field. Great improvement has been made in overhead tracks and cars during recent years. The best makes work easily without binding or unnecessary friction. The same may be said of horse forks, hay carriers and feed carriers. General Description. The illustrations show a dairy barn thirty-six feet in width, eighty-six feet in length and fifty feet high from the stable floor to the peak. 32 FARM BUILDINGS The stable is arranged to face the cows in towards a center feed alley. The cow stalls are separated by steel partitions and are fitted with improved stan- chions hung to steel manger frames. The horse stalls are enclosed with steel fences and steel gates. They are fitted with steel hay racks and feed boxes. There is a stairway leading from the horse depart- ment to the floor above, landing in front of the upper side door. This door is for light and ventilation and to admit the blower pipe at threshing time to blow straw into the storage loft. The horse stable is shut off from the cow stable by a partition and solid doors which are kept shut except when the stables are being cleaned. There is considerable machinery in the different parts of the barn to save hand labor and to do the chores quickly and better. The stable ceiling is lined with wall board and is painted to make it air tight and vermin proof. Between the stable and the silos are two feed rooms and a wash room for the men. In this wash room are lockers for their white milking suits and there is a shower bath and wash bowls with hot and cold run- ning water on tap. The dairy house is a small separate building at some distance from the stable. It is built according to requirements laid down by pure milk regulations. CHAPTER V DAIRY BARN FOR TWENTY-EIGHT COWS This is a dairy barn thirty-six feet in width by sixty-four feet long. Figure 14. It is designed to meet the most rigid sanitary requirements as well as to provide the greatest pos- sible amount of cow comfort with the least possible expenditure of labor in attending to their numerous wants. A labor-saving barn is required to house the cows and the fodder to feed them. There is machinery to pack the feed into the great storage mow in summer and into the silo. There is also machinery to get the feed out in winter and carry it to the mangers as needed. The foundation is built of concrete from the wall footings up four feet above the concrete stable floor. The footings are shown two feet wide to give them plenty of surface to prevent settling. There is con- siderable weight on a wall under a building of this size and height and it is supposed to stay exactly as placed. Great care is taken in starting the floor, as per- manency depends upon getting the right start. After the ground is carefully leveled it is wet down to settle it all over alike. In putting down the foundation for the wall, it is necessary to do considerable digging 33 34 FARM BUILDINGS FARM BUILDINGS 35 which loosens the ground in places. Such spots can be packed down hard only with water. After the earth is settled and leveled it may be laid off into divisions bordered by the manger and gutter forms. The back of each manger is built against two by six pieces fastened to stakes driven into the ground. The top edges of each of these planks touch the line as shown in the detail floor drawings, Figure 17, so the cement manger is struck off level. The line is carefully leveled and the level mark is snapped against the side- walls with a chalk line so that the line may be quickly stretched crosswise of the stable at any time to test the work by measuring from the line down to different parts of the floor. The line on the drawing shows a drop of six inches immediately behind the manger and seven inches at the gutter and fifteen inches to the bottom of the gutter, so it is always easy to prove the grading of the floor at any stage during the progress of the work. Likewise horizontal measurements are given which show the cow standing portion of the stable floor to be five feet in width from the center of the back divi- sion of the manger to the edge of the gutter. In doing work of this kind it is always necessary to have a place of beginning to establish grades and measurements. In this stable the proper starting place is the manger. All cow mangers are placed low down. Cows nat- urally feed from the ground so it is in keeping with their established habits to eat from the level of their front feet. Cow stable floors are made the same as sidewalks, 36 FARM BUILDINGS Ii OS $2 S u-3 si " 2 FARM BUILDINGS 37 by using two by four strips to mark the floor into blocks. The scantlings are spaced and leveled or graded to fit the floor grade and the concrete mortar is struck even with the top edges of the division pieces to bring the floor true to levels and grades. It is impossible to give a formula for mixing con- crete for the stable floor without knowing the quality of the sand and gravel. As a rule it is best not to use sand that contains more than ten per cent of clay or mud. Water in excess of ordinary requirements will sometimes unite poor materials by washing the sand so the impurities will settle. Wet concrete usu- ally makes a better job under ordinary conditions. After the foundation the most particular part of a cow stable is the surface. It pays to get good sharp sand for the surface coat and to lay it on with a trowel with considerable pressure to make it water- proof. Pressure with the trowel drives out the air and unites the particles of cement and sand so closely that water cannot enter. After the floor is thoroughly trowled it may be mussed over with a stubby broom to rough the sur- face, so the cows won't slip, but this must be done carefully. The mangers and feed alley floor should be finished smooth and all parts of the floor should be made hard. The detail floor drawings show the manner of lay- ing prepared blocks into the concrete to make an easy floor that is warmer than concrete. A good deal depends upon the way the cows are bedded. The big mow overhead is intended for storage for straw as well as hay. Dairymen find it necessary to grow large quantities of grain to feed, to their cows. 38 FARM BUILDINGS At threshing time they havemany tons of clean bright straw that is valuable if it is properly housed. It is blown from the stacker into one end of the big mow and lifted out in winter time with the horse fork and carried to the mangers in the feed carrier. Cows will eat a good deal of straw along towards noon. They like to pick it over and munch the chaff and finer parts. Then in the afternoon when the stables are cleaned the mussed over straw in the mangers is forked back into the stalls for bedding. It is also a good liquid manure absorbent as it grad- ually works back into the gutters. This already makes three uses for clean, bright straw, but the most valuable use is when it is taken in the manure spreaders while it is soaked full of liquid phosphoric acid and ammonia and is spread out on the land to grow big crops of corn and small grain to be followed by clover and other legumes. A splendidly well made stable floor is in this way made first aid to the manufacture of a very valuable by-product of the dairy. Stable manure from grain- fed cows, made and handled in this way, is valued at thirty dollars per year for each 1,000 pound cow. This great value depends upon the proper use of the manure after it is made as well as upon the way it is made and handled. Under scientific management the manure from thirty cows may be made to pay for the barn. Wall board is specified for lining this stable above the concrete wall for the reason that wall board may be made air tight. An air tight stable may be ven- tilated easier and better than when there are many cracks to admit air. Wall board may be butted to- FARM BUILDINGS gether to bring the joints on the joists. These joints are then easily filled with putty and the whole surface covered with two coats of good white lead and oil. Figure 16. Cross Section Showing Detail of Construction When walls and ceilings are made in this way there is no harbor for disease-breeding bacteria. The walls may be brushed with long handled brushes to remove the little floating dust that finds a lodgment which goes a long way towards keeping the stable in a sani- tary condition. 40 FARM BUILDINGS For the same reason all stall partitions and stan- chions are made of iron and coated with smooth enamel that may be washed or wiped with damp cloths to remove all bacteria-laden dust and dirt. The supporting columns that carry the weight of the girders are of wrought iron filled with concrete. Figure 17. Cross Section Showing the Manner of Constructing the Concrete Floor and Wall and Stable Window This makes a stiff solid support that may be smooth finished to correspond with the manger and stall partitions. Each column stands in cement in the back line of the manger which really is a continuous wall with ample footings to support the overhead load. When the big mow is filled and settled and filled to the peak it will hold more than 100 tons of hay, so it behooves FARM BUILDINGS 41 the owner to provide considerable under pinning to prevent settling. It will be noticed that the spacing works out right for three lengths of twelve foot joists to splice on the girders. The joists are two by twelves placed twenty- four inches apart on centers and well bridged to make a solid floor. The stable is lighted by twenty windows glazed with nine by twelve lights, nine lights to a window. This gives 135 square feet of glass, or about four and a half feet to each animal in the stable. It is impossible to keep a dark stable clean. The silo is sixteen feet in diameter and thirty-six feet high. It will hold about 140 tons of silage, which will equal 280 days feeding, allowing each cow thirty- five pounds of silage per day. Another silo is provided for in the plan to be built sometime in the future as the herd grows in numbers. Herds always do increase when a sanitary dairy is once started because it pays. Plank frame construction is used above the concrete wall. Planks are used in different widths from two by fours to two by tens for girders and two by twelves for floor joists. The girders are built up by bolting four planks together. They are selected according to the way the grain runs and are placed side by side, breaking the splicing in such a way as to make continuous girders the whole length of the barn. The roof construction is self supporting on the can- tilever truss principle. Each pair of rafters forms an independent truss reaching from one wall to the other. Placing such trusses three feet apart makes a strong roof and a great mow that is free from obstructions 42 FARM BUILDINGS so the hay fork and hay tipple may work freely from one end of the barn to the other. Ventilation pipes are arranged to carry out Pro- fessor King's system of ventilating dairy stables. There are inlet pipes that admit fresh air from out- side and deliver it over the cows. The outlet pipes take the foul air from near the floor behind the cows and carry it up to the peak of the roof. The ventilating flues are connected at the peak with metal ventilator hoods that regulate the draft so the flow of air through the pipes is constant regardless of the direction of the wind. CHAPTER VI DAIRY BARN FOE THIRTY COWS This barn shown in Figure 18, is thirty-six feet in width, which is a few feet wider than older dairy stables, to make room for wide alleys behind the cows and a feed alley of sufficient width to accommodate a feed carrier suspended from an overhead track. A similar track is fitted into the ceiling over the rear alleys to support a manure carrier. This track extends the full length of both manure gutters and clear around both silos, where the ground is supposed to be low enough to drive the manure spreader under the carrier to dump the load. This is a very impor- tant feature, and one that is well worth figuring on before the building is started. Between the two silos and the end of the stable is a feed room with a low roof. It is easier to build it low, as we avoid the barn cornice. This feed room is divided into three parts to make storage for different kinds of grains. The litter carrier track runs underneath a shute that is built in front of the silo doors, so that the silage may be forked into the shute above and fall directly into the carrier. When two men are doing the feeding this arrangement saves one handling. The man in the silo gets the feed ready while the man with the carrier is dumping the load. When he returns 43 FARM BUILDINGS FARM BUILDINGS V. DUMP 46 FARM BUILDINGS with the carrier it is filled almost instantly by the man in the silo. Likewise the bedding is forked down a similar shute from the storage mow into the litter carrier and is run through the stable to the different stalls. All over- head tracks are alike, so the litter carrier may be run through any of the alleys. A good ventilating system is provided through steel air shafts placed in the walls. There are four of these ventilating flues, which follow the walls to the plates, then follow the rafters to the peak, where they are topped with ventilators to secure a steady upward draft. The silos are fourteen feet in diameter by thirty- two feet in height. The capacity of two silos of this size is rather more than necessary to feed thirty cows during the regular silo feeding season, but silage is being used for summer feed as well as winter feed, also the number of animals on a dairy farm where silage is fed, increase rapidly. It is seldom that any silage is wasted. It is such a valuable feed that some use is found for it some time during the year. For this reason it is advisable to provide plenty of silage capacity. Two small silos are better than one large one, as the silage may be kept fresher. Above the stable is the large storage mow which, owing to the construction of the roof, is free from cross timbers, so the hay fork may be run directly through from one end of the barn to the other. The height of the peak and the shape of the roof is espe- cially designed to give large capacity for hay and straw. FARM BUILDINGS 47 It is customary to put more windows in cow stables than formerly. This stable is designed for a little more than four square feet of glass per cow. The windows being placed behind the cows give plenty of light at milking time. Figure 20. Cross Section Showing Detail of the Stable Floor. Barn Floor and Plank Frame Roof Construction Steel stall partitions separate the cows, and the steel frame over the manger forms a hanger for the light swinging stanchions. This steel frame also pro- vides places for the record sheet for keeping daily account of the milk that each cow produces. Inside the stable the walls are made as smooth as possible to prevent lodgment of dust. Dust harbors bacteria, and bacteria make trouble for dairymen. That is one great advantage of using iron stall par- titions there is little room for the lodgment of dust. They are easily dusted or washed or wiped with a 48 ' FARM BUILDINGS damp cloth. Dairymen are becoming very particular in regard to the manner in which the stable is kept. It is impossible to keep a stable clean unless it is designed and built for cleanliness. CHAPTER VII MONITOR EOOF DAIRY STABLE For ventilation in summer a monitor roof is better than other forms of dairy stable construction. Where the hot weather continues through the spring, summer and fall, dairymen are looking for the coolest way possible to build their dairy stables. The stable shown in Figure 21 has all the sanitary stable fixtures required by the most rigid inspection rules. These rules by the way, are not unreasonable when they are rightly understood. Sometimes inspect- ors are too aggressive, some are too ignorant to know right from wrong, but taking inspection as it embraces the whole country it is working splendidly for the benefit of honest dairymen. Particular consumers are demanding cleaner milk. They are beginning to understand that it costs money to be clean and they are learning to pay the price. Many city people realize that it is cheaper to pay an extra cent or two per quart for milk than to pay more money to the doctors and to lose time while convalescing. Like all good dairy stables this manner of building requires a good solid foundation of concrete which includes the dairy floor. The outside concrete walls and the supporting piers under the mangers are built first and carefully leveled on top. The ground between the walls is then wet down and made solid. 49 50 FARM BUILDINGS FARM BUILDINGS 51 Stable floors usually are level from end to end except the bottom of the gutters behind the cows. Gutters are given a fall of about one inch to twenty feet on the bottom to drain out at the end of the building when the gutters are washed with the hose. r/K)NT ELEVATION Figure 22. Showing End View of Monitor Roof Stable Grading the ground crossways of the building calls for measurements to bring the mangers up to grade and the gutters down to their proper places. One way to test the work as it proceeds is to make two tem- plates, one as a guide, between the outside wall and the center piers and the other template to reach across the mangers and feed alley from each center pier to its opposite mate. These templates are built up by using narrow strips of wood having straight edges. The points of con- tact for the templates are the top surface of the finished foundation walls and the tops of the center piers. The lines followed are the face surface lines of the finished floor. From the inside of the foundation walls of the manure alley, the floor should slope to the edges of the gutters. From the backs of the FAKM BUILDINGS FARM BUILDINGS 64 FARM BUILDINGS mangers the standing, or stall floors, slope back to the gutters. The center alley floor and the bottom of the mangers are on a level with each other. These templates are first used to grade the ground, afterwards they are used to set the stakes and forms for the concrete floor. The top edges of the two by fours used for forms are placed to touch the bottom edges of the templates, when the soft cement floor surface is struck off with a straight edge even with the tops of the two by four forms; then the finished floor conforms to the floor line as shown in the cross section drawing, Figure 24. The floor plan, Figure 23, shows the stable to be thirty-six feet in width and forty feet in length. The width has been worked out carefully and may be con- sidered standard. The manure alleys are supposed to be kept clean at milking time and there are manure carriers and hose sprinklers and scrubbing brushes to assist in the cleansing operations. The space between the cows and the outside wall as shown is sufficient to operate these different mechanical labor savers to advantage. There are windows enough to light this part of the stable effectively, partly to reveal any dirt and partly because considerable light is wanted at milking time. Cows do better in a bright stable. Modern dairy stables are, built not only to furnish a comfortable feeding and milking shelter, but to supply conditons that are favorable to the use of dairy machinery including milking machines. Labor saving dairy machinery has done away with so much drudgery that a large herd of milking cows FARM BUILDINGS 55 may be better cared for with less expenditure of hand labor than a small dairy demanded a few years ago. The length of this -stable is- sufficient to hold twenty cows. It may be> extended to twice o-r three times the length if that much room is needed. The same width is maintained, but lengthwise the plan is extremely elastic. If fifty or more cows are stabled, however, it will be necessary to build another silo. Silage is the best and cheapest cow feed and the handiest to store and deliver. It is a good plan to have silage enough to feed at milking time the year around. A full day's silage ration for a cow weighing 1,000 pounds is reckoned at forty pounds, but when silage is fed only at milking time to keep the cows quiet and contented, probably an, average of twenty or twenty-five pounds will be sufficient. A great deal depends upon the way the cows are cared for between milking periods. This plan provides for a covered passage way which connects the stable with the silo. The silo delivery shute comes down into this feed room and the feed carrier track extends to within a few feet of the silos, so it is easy to load the carrier directly from the bot- tom of the shute and to run it clear through the feed alley, dumping the necessary amount before each cow as it goes along. The new feed carriers are much larger than the old ones and they have hinged sides that may be lowered to slide the feed into the cow mangers. The width of the car with the wings extended should fit the space between the mangers so that feed will drop into them and not fall short nor shoot over. 56 FARM BUILDINGS If the stable is made extra long and feed carriers of greater capacity are needed, then the feed carrier cars may be made longer, but the proper width should be maintained. The silo shute may be fitted at the bottom with a hopper to hold the silage up from the floor. The feed carrier may then be run under the hopper and loaded by pulling a slide to let the silage fall through. BOARD Figure 25. Side View Showing Plan for Building a Hayfork Hood to Project from Peak of a Storage Barn. The Jack -Rafters form a Brace to Support the End of the Hay-Track Beam HAYFORK HOOD. It is easy to frame a hayfork hood extension to a barn roof by extending the ridgeboard five feet beyond the wall rafter. The ridgeboard is supported by two pairs of jack-rafters as shown in Figures 25 and 26. The outer jacks carry the barge board effect around FARM BUILDINGS the point of the hood. The hay-track is hung by long bolts reaching down from the ridgeboard extension. BUILDING SCAFFOLD BRACKET Two pieces of two by four, four feet long each, halved and bolted together at the corner, makes the BDGE'BOARD''3HOULD- EXTIND 5AKN 8 FEET. PLAM Figure 26. Top View of the Hay-Track Roof Extension Showing the Ridgeboard and Supporting Jack-Rafters cheapest, safest and most convenient scaffold bracket. There are four braces of one by four nailed to the two by four pieces, as shown in Figure 27. Either a two by four or a four by four is used for the leg, according to the height of the scaffold. The leg is not fastened. It fits snugly between the four side braces and takes any slant necessary to raise the scaffold to the proper height. FARM BUILDINGS DAIRY STALL AND MANGER Figure 28 shows a cross section through a dairy stall and manger and gutter. The dimensions are marked. Cork brick are sometimes used for the Figure 27. Building Bracket Made of 2x4 Pieces Put Together at Right Angles with Diagonal Braces. The Supporting Leg Fits Between the Four Diagonal Braces Figure 28. Detail of Dairy Stable Floor and Stall Construc- tion. In this Cross Section Cork Brick are Shown as a Cushion Intended for Animals Which Remain in the Stable Long Hours. FARM BUILDINGS 59 standing floor for cows because cork is warmer and it is more pliable or springy. Cork brick should be carefully laid in asphaltum to prevent filth from accumulating in the cracks between. This kind of stall floor is somewhat expensive, but for a valuable animal the extra cost may be justified. A MODERN DAIRY BARN Figure 29 shows a cross section through a modern dairy barn thirty-six feet wide. The lettering and figures on the drawing give sizes of planks used in the 2/6 TIE. U-0 WELL WILED TO EVEPr .SET OF R4FTEP.5. I4 : 0'|_ONG. 24- ON CENTERS. WELL NAILfLD TO EVEPY PAFTEP AND STUDDING. '.STUDDING i3 : 0'LONG 24' ON CENTEP GIPDER 3'IPON COLUMNS Figure 29. Cross Section Showing Complete Detail of Concrete Stable Floor Construction with Footings and Center Piers. Also Heavy Girders, Side Walls and Rafter Trusses. 60 FARM BUILDINGS upper works. The stable is made air tight and bacteria proof according to the best dairy practice. This type of gambrel roof is much used. JWWCK i -2PCS tx& .5ZPARATAR BLOCKS % " 'ipcme' TPUJ3LS SPACED TCOM t2T01fcFT /PAPT CONCPETZ F100B I Figure 30. Section Through a Large Storage Barn Designed for a Farm Where Considerable Alfalfa is Grown. These Trusses are Placed from 12 to 16 Feet Apart, According to the Size of the Barn CROSS SECTION OP STORAGE BARN SHOWING THE BRACING Such a barn may be constructed of light material, but it is necessary to place a braced bent about every sixteen feet, as shown in Figure 30. This plan shows FARM BUILDINGS 61 up and down boarding, with or without battons. Bat- tons add to the appearance but sometimes ventilation is of more account. The good appearance of a farm building should never be neglected to save a little expense at time of building. The illustration shows a barn truss thirty-six feet in width and forty feet high to the peak. CHAPTER VIII NEW MODELS FOE FARM BABNS ROUND CURB-ROOF BARN. ELLIPTICAL OR EGG-SHAPED BARN. AUDITORIUM BARN. SHEEP BARN. ROUND CURB-ROOF BARN To build a round barn, take a silo and put a barn around it. Formerly silos were square or rectangular ; they are all made round today. Some barns are made around some silos. Usually such, barns are built with expensive curb-roofs. ELLIPTICAL OF EGG-SHAPED BARN A new round barn is to be rounded elliptically, from sill to apex, as well as to be circular ; made egg- shape with the small end at the top and the big end smashed down hard on the ground to make it sit up straight, as shown in Figure 31. The silo is made of two by six studding boarded around with thin boards sprung into place. Two thick- nesses of boards are used, breaking joints with building paper between. The hay tipple runs half way around the silo in both directions and dumps the hay where it is wanted. The hay-track takes the same upward curve as the roof and the fork drops the hay on the center of the tipple. This plan saves running a cir- cular hay-track around under the roof. Filling the silo requires a silage carrier instead of a blower pipe. FARM BUILDINGS 63 Round barns may be built cheaper than barns with corners having the same capacity because a circle includes a greater area than any possible combina- tion of straight lines. The saving in building a round, or rounded, barn as compared with a rectangular barn Figure 31. Round Barn with Silo in Center. The Hay Tipple Is Supported by a Track which Runs Nearly Around the Silo So the Tipple May Travel in Either Direction. Hay is Taken in Through the Lower Dormer. The Silo is Filled Through the Upper Dormer Window of the same cubic foot capacity should be from twenty to thirty-five per cent. The saving in the material alone has been figured at a higher percentage. Some' thing depends upon the size and height in each case. 64 FARM BUILDINGS Forty cows may be stabled in a round barn sixty feet in diameter and leave room for a silo and a cir- cular feed room in the center. A round barn with a round silo in the center is simply one cylinder inside of another, both support- ing each other. Round or rounded barns are so new that propor- tions have not been thoroughly tested out, but on general principles, it is thought best not to raise the point of the roof more than two-thirds the diameter of the barn. That is, a sixty-foot barn would be forty feet in height, which is high enough for a good silo. It is not thought desirable to make a round barn more than ninety feet in diameter on the self-supporting curb-roof plan. No builder has yet shown sufficient nerve to build an egg-shaped barn of any capacity. The term, "self supporting roof," is a misnomer in a way, because the silo makes the best kind of support in the center, although some builders claim that a roof made in this way is plenty stiff enough to withstand the strongest winds without any support other than the round shell of the building itself. The form of the rounded or elliptical roof takes advantage of the tensile strain of timbers which is a hundred times greater than the bending strain. Re- sistance to a side strain on a stick of timber is not very great, but it is difficult to imagine a straight pull sufficient to tear apart sound pieces of building timber. The egg-shape so far as the roof is concerned, offers resistance from every direction. The sill is built up of small segments, or bent strips, to form an immense hoop. All of the different strips of siding and each FARM BUILDINGS 65 continuous roof board are parts of other hoops which hold the barn together. To appreciate a rounded bulgy construction of this kind, it is only necessary to consider the strength of a barrel that is well hooped. In regard to the cubic space enclosed, the dairy department of the University of Illinois worked out the economy of building a round barn for a twenty- acre dairy farm showing a saving over a rectangular barn of the same capacity amounting to twenty-two per cent in wall construction and thirty-four per cent in cost of material for the barn. The Illinois barn, however, is not egg-shaped. It is built with a curb or gambrel in the roof and with rafters terminating at the eaves as in a curb-roofed rectangular barn. Figures 32 and 33 give many details of construction for an egg-shaped barn. The ideas shown have not all been actually built into a barn or any other build- ing, but they are theoretically correct. The advan- tages of this style of construction are economy of material and strength to resist strain from either the inside or the outside better than any other that has been invented. AUDITORIUM BARN Wagon bows have been used for a hundred years to support the roofs of "prairie schooners." The same mechanical principle applies to the building of town halls and larger auditoriums. And now farmers are using giant wagon bows in the building of large storage barns. The foundation is made of concrete in the usual 66 FARM BUILDINGS Figure 32. Floor Plan of Round Barn, Showing Silo in the Center and the Feed-Alley Between the Silo and the Manger. A Manure Carrier Track Encircles the Stalls as Shown. way with one exception. The outside walls are made thicker to receive the ends of the bows, or, sometimes iron wall sockets are used. Sometimes wooden sills are embedded in soft concrete on top of the walls and the feet of the bows are bolted to the sill. FARM BUILDINGS 67 Whatever method is used the bows should be well anchored at the bottom. The bows or arches are usually built up out of boards bent to a scribed circle so they are all exactly alike. Sometimes the lower ends or legs of the bows are made straight for several feet to lift the roof higher without making the barn too wide. \ L-LI I I L Figure 33. Diagram Showing How to Cut a Plank on a Saw to Form a Curved Rafter. The Two Pieces of the Plank are Spiked Together as Shown in the Lower Drawing. This Makes a Curved Rafter Without Waste of Material. The barn is stronger when built without an eave projection, as the boarding may then be put on con- tinuously without a break. If the concrete wall is built up high enough to allow for a basement, then the gutter is attached to the lower boarding at the top of the wall. If roll roofing is used the roof boards should be matched with tongue and groove and put on smoothly to give proper support to the roofing. Matched roof boards are worth all they cost just for extra stiffness regardless of the kind of roofing they are covered with. CS FARM BUILDINGS SHEEP BARNS Sheep are the worst fresh-air cranks among domes- tie animals. For this reason a good sheep barn differs from all other farm buildings. Sheep are covered with warm wool in the winter time sufficient to protect them from severe cold weather so long as the atmosphere remains dry. But when the rains come this same fleece of wool acts like a sponge to absorb and hold moisture. When the wool is wet it must be dried by evapora- tion induced by the body heat of the sheep. Evapo- ration is a cooling process so the sheep is required to eat more heat-forming food, otherwise it must draw upon its stored up fat to dry its wool. In either case there is an economic waste and the vitality of the sheep is impaired. A sheep barn should provide shelter from rains and protection against cold north and west winds. It should also contain sufficient roughage to feed the flock all winter, which means that the main part of the building should be high and broad, if many sheep are kept, and it should have wings in the shape of feeding sheds open to the south and east, i There may be a silo for the sheep alone, or silage may be brought by overhead carrier from the cattle department. Silage is just as good for sheep as it is for cows or beef cattle. It is the cheapest roughage, and, with the exception of roots, it is the most suc- culent of winter feeding materials for farm live stock. Silage in connection with alfalfa or clover hay will bring ewes through to yeaning time in good condition with little or no grain. FARM BUILDINGS An eight-sided sheep barn with shelter sheds and yeaning pens is shown in Figure 34. The posts are set in concrete. The outside posts support the plates and the inside posts support purlin plates. The roof Figure 34. Sheep Barn with Hay in the Center. There is an Open Yard with Open Sheds Protected from the Cold Winds. is hipped from each outside post to the apex. A hay dormer is built intc the most convenient side of the roof and the hay-track runs the hay-carrier to the center. Hay is dumped on the ground and is stacked 70 FARM BUILDINGS up to the roof. Feed racks are built around the hay. Feed is pitched down from above and is guided into the feed racks by shutes attached to posts, one shute to two feed racks. Gates are hinged to the outside posts for the purpose of dividing the barn into small pens when the lambs are young. Double gates, or doors, are shown under one shed. These doors are hinged to fold back upon each other when not in use. It is a convenient way to have individual pens for one ewe and lamb. CHAPTER IX MISCELLANEOUS FAEM BUILDINGS GARAGE AND POWER HOUSE It is perfectly natural that both power and light should radiate from the farm garage. Farming is rapidly becoming a power proposition. Farmers own more automobiles than city people; farm trucks are becoming popular, and the demand for small farm tractors is greater than the factories can supply. The coming farm garage will combine storage for these locomotors together with a power plant and machine shop. There will be a dynamo driven at odd times by the engine of the farm tractor. The elec- tricity so developed will be stored in batteries and paid out as needed, to drive all the stationary machines on the farm and to light every building. There will be a small electric motor stationed in each building driven by electricity which will be carried by wire from the central power house. The garage and power house should be a well ven- tilated fireproof building made of concrete up to the plates. See Figure 35. Fireproof roofs are rather more expensive than the lower part of the building, so that some figuring on the cost of fireproof roofing materials may be neces- sary before deciding. 71 72 FARM BUILDINGS The roof trusses must span the space from one side wall to the other because no posts are wanted in a garage. Either king trusses or queen trusses, or a modification of these principles, will be required to support the roof according to the width of the build- ing and the materials used. Figure 35. Concrete Farm Garage, Showing: Both Front and Side Doors The floor is the most important part of a farm power house. It should be solid, level, smooth, water- proof and well drained. Power on a large farm means tractor, truck, and automobile, together with dynamo and several small motors to drive stationary machines such as cream separator, fanning mill, grindstone, churn, sewing machine, washing machine and other light work. Heavy driving such as pumping, feed grinding, corn shelling, cutting silage, etc., will be done by direct belt or tumbling rod. FARM BUILDINGS 73 The power house on such a farm should be large enough to hold the three mobile machines and a dynamo properly placed to be driven by belt from the tractor. And there should be a forge, drill press and vise bench, and possibly a separate bench for cutting and threading gas pipe. A building twenty by thirty feet could be used to advantage. There should be two large doors and a Figure 36. Design of Roof Truss Intended to Span a Farm Garage small door, and plenty of windows for light so that repair work may be done in any part of the room. There is light on all sides of a farm building. Win- dows are not much more expensive than the same sur- face of solid wall. Two forms of roof trusses are shown, either of whicfi will support the roof over a span of twenty feet. Fig- ures 36 and 37. From three to five trusses are needed to properly support the roof. The number of trusses and the size of timbers both are specified after the size of the garage and the width of span is decided 74 FARM BUILDINGS upon. On general principles, six by six is heavy enough for the main timber and the upper timbers may be lighter. It is intended that the tractor shall have a per- manent place near the right-hand wall where it will Figure 37. Another Style of Roof Truss Built Strong Enough to Support the Roof of a Farm Garage Without Center Posts belt directly to the dynamo. There will be a concrete wheel block to stop the tractor the proper belting dis- tance from the dynamo. The truck belongs at the left where it may remain until wanted. This arrangement leaves the center of the garage for the automobile which is likely to be brought in at the front door and taken out through the side door several times a day. The back end of the room is the machine shop, but it is not shut off by a partition. A farm garage dif- fers from the machinery shed because the garage is active while the shed is intended for storage. The garage is all in use and it should be well lighted, ven- tilated, heated in winter and made comfortable to work in the year round. FARM BUILDINGS 75 A tarpaulin may be dropped from one of the ceil- ing truss beams at the shop end when the weather is extremely cold, but a permanent partition is too much in the way. There should be a good wash floor with a slight depression and a good drain trap. Car washing facil- ities may be provided either inside or outside of the garage. SMALL FARM GAEAGE A small garage fourteen feet wide and twenty feet deep is shown as a separate building in Figures 38 and 39. Some farmers object to using gasoline, or storing it, near the main buildings. In all cases it is better to Figure 38. Farm Garage Built of Wood with Concrete Wall and Floor keep the supply of gasoline underground for safety first, also to prevent evaporation. This little building has a solid concrete foundation and floor with a drain in the center to carry off the wash water. There are 76 FARM BUILDINGS two small work benches in the corners of the room for light tinker work, but the main repairs are supposed to be done in the farm blacksmith shop. A small dormer in the roof helps with ventilation which is Figure 39. Floor Plan of Farm Garage 14 Feet in Width by 20 Feet in Length quite important in winter when the doors and windows are shut. Many deaths have been caused by running an automobile engine in a tightly closed garage. Com- bustion uses all of the oxygen out of the air and the attendant dies from suffocation. ADVANTAGES OF THE TWO-STORY CORN CRIB In combination with the farm granary, the new building makes a safe storage for both corn and small grains. When properly constructed it is easily made rat-proof. Because such a building usually is isolated from other buildings, and, as there is no accumulation FARM BUILDINGS 77 of straw or other inflammable material about, it is considered comparatively safe from fire. Two-story corn cribs and grain houses utilize space to advantage because one foundation and one roof Figure 40. Perspective View of Two-Story Corn Crib. The Side of the Building: is Cut Away to Show the Elevating Machinery does double- duty, The height and size of a grain house is governed only by the requirements of the farm, but the deeper the grain bins the more material is required to make them sufficiently strong. Com- mercial grain elevators sometimes are carried up a hundred feet, but the construction is expensive. A well built two-story farm corn crib and grain house is an ornament and a valuable asset. See Figures 40 and 41. 78 FARM BUILDINGS Cleaning a/nd Grading Grain. A two-story corn crib and granary has a central driveway which is closed at both ends by doors and is used in fall and winter to clean and grade grain before selling or seeding. There are down spouts and elevating buckets to do the shoveling and lifting and carrying. r *- *-ue-c**~,r