ing in Plate II, it will be observed that the thrashing-machine, placed in the upper barn above the corn-barn C, the machine for separating the corn from the straw, is in the middle of the great range of the steading, ready to receive the unthrashed crop from the stack-yard behind it, S, and as ready to deliver the straw thrashed into the straw-barn L, and the grain into the corn-barn C below. The straw-barn L, is purposely made of the height of the upper barn, to contain a large quantity of straw, as it is often convenient in bad weather to thrash out a considerable quantity of corn, when no other work can be proceeded with, or when high market-prices induce farmers to take advantage of them. There is another good reason for giving ample room to the straw-barn. Every sort of straw is not suited to every purpose, one sort being best suited for litter, and another for fodder. This being the case, it is desirable to have always both kinds in the barn, that the fodder-straw may not be wasted in litter, and the litterstraw given as fodder to the injury of the animals. Besides, the same sort of straw is not alike acceptable as fodder to every class of animals. Thus wheat-straw is a favourite fodder with horses, as well as oat-straw, whilst the latter only is acceptable to cattle. Barley-straw is only fit for litter. To give access to litter and fodder straw at the same time, it is necessary to have a door from each kind into each court. Thus four doors, two at each side near the ends, are required in a large straw-barn. Slit-like openings should be made in its side-walls, to admit air and promote ventilation through the straw. A skylight in the roof, at the end nearest the thrashing-machine, is useful in giving light to those who take away and store up the straw from the thrashing-machine when the doors are shut, which they should be whenever the wind happens to blow too strongly through them into the machine against the straw. Instead of dividing straw-barn doors into two vertical leaves, as is usually done, they should be divided horizontally into an upper and lower leaf, so that the lower may always be kept shut against intruders, such as pigs, whilst the upper admits both light and air into the barn. One of the doors at each end should be furnished with a

good stock-lock and key, and thumb latch, and the other two fastened with a wooden hand-bar from the inside. The floor of the straw-barn is seldom or never flagged or causewayed, though it is desirable it should be. If it were not so expensive, the asphaltum pavement would make an excellent floor for a straw-barn. Whatever substance is employed for the purpose, the floor should be made so firm and dry as to prevent the earth rising and the straw moulding. Mouldy straw at the bottom of a heap superinduces throughout the upper mass a disagreeable odour, and imparts a taste repugnant to every animal. That portion of the floor upon which the straw first alights on sliding down the straw-screen of the thrashingmachine, should be strongly boarded, to resist the action of the forks when removing the straw. Blocks of hard wood, such as the stools of hard-wood trees, set on end causewaywise, and sunk into the earth, form a very durable flooring for this purpose. Stone flagging in this place destroys the prongs of the pitchforks. The straw-barn should communicate with the chaff-house by a shutting door, to enable those who take away the straw to see whether the chaff accumulates too high against the end of the winnowingmachine. The communication to the wool-room in this plan is by the strawbarn, by means of a stair made of wood or stone. The straw-barn is 72 feet in length, 18 feet in breadth, and 15 feet in height to the top of the side walls.

1679. C is the corn-barn. Its roof is formed of the floor of the upper barn. and its height is generally made too low. The higher the roof is, the more easily will the corn descend to be cleaned from the thrashing-machine down the hopper to the winnowing-machine. Nine feet is the least height it should be in any instance. The plan gives the size of the corn-barn at 31 feet by 18 feet; by taking 5 feet for partitioning off the machinery of the thrashing-mill, the extent of the workable part of the barn floor will be 26 feet by 18 feet. In that space I have seen much barn-work done. The corn-barn should have in it at least two glazed windows, to admit plenty of light in the short days of winter, and they should be guarded outside with iron

stanchions.

If one window cannot be got to the south, the door when open will answer for the admission of sunshine to keep the apartment comfortably dry for the work-people and the grain. The door is generally divided into upper and lower halves, which, as usually placed, are always in the way when the winnowingmachine is used at the door. A more convenient method is to have the door in a whole piece, and when opened, to fold back into a recess in the outer wall, over the top of which a plinth might project to throw off the rain. In this case the ribats and lintel must be giblet-checked as deep as the thickness of the door, into which it should close flush, and be fastened with a good lock and key, and provided with a thumb-latch. The object of making the corn-barn door of this form is to avoid the inconvenience of its opening into the barn, where, unless it folds wholly back on a wall, is frequently in the way of work, particularly when winnowing roughs, and taking out sacks of corn on men's backs. As to size, it should not be less in the opening than 74 feet in height and 3 feet in width. A light half-door can be hooked on, when work is going on, to prevent the intrusion of animals, and the wind sweeping along the floor. The floor of the corn-barn is frequently made of clay, or of a composition of ashes and lime; the asphaltic composition would be better than either; but in every instance it should be made of wood,-of sound hard red-wood Drahm battens, ploughed and feathered, and fastened down to stout joists with Scotch flooring sprigs driven through the feather-edge. A wooden floor is the only one that can be depended on being constantly dry in a corn-barn; and in a barn for the use of corn, a dry floor is indispensable. It has been suggested to me that a stone pavement, square-jointed, and laid on a bed of lime over 9 inches of broken stones-or an asphaltum pavement, laid on a body of 6 inches of broken stones, covered with a bed of grout on the top of the stones, would make as dry and a more durable barn-floor than wood, and which will not rot. No doubt stone or asphaltum pavement is durable, and not liable to rot; but there are objections to both, in a corn-barn, of a practical nature, and it is certain that the best stone pavement is not proof against the under

mining powers of the brown rat: whilst a wooden floor is durable enough, and certainly will not rot, if kept dry in the manner I shall recommend. The objections to all stone pavements as a barnfloor are, that the scoops for shovelling the corn pass very harshly over them,the iron nails in the shoes of the workpeople wear them down, raise a dust upon them, and crush the grain,-and they are hurtful to the bare hands and light implements, when used in taking up the corn from the floor. For true comfort in all these respects in a barn-floor, there is nothing like wood. The walls of this barn should be made smooth with hairplaster, and the joists and flooring forming its roof cleaned with the plane, as dust adheres much more readily to a rough than to a smooth surface. The stairs to the granaries should enter from the cornbarn, and a stout plain-deal door with lock and key placed at the bottom of each. And at the side of one of the stairs may be enclosed on the floor of the barn, a space t, to contain light corn to be given to the fowls and pigs in summer, when this sort of food becomes scarce.

1680. As the method of hanging doors on a giblet-check should be adopted in all cases in steadings where doors on outside walls are likely to meet with obstructions on opening inwards, or themselves becoming obstructive to things passing outwards, the subject deserves a separate notice. In fig. 128, a is the inside form Fig. 128.

part of the lintel c protecting it effectually from the rain; d is the giblet-check in the lintel, ande that in the ribats, into which the door shuts flush; f is the light movable door used when work is going on in the corn-barn.

1681. The wooden floor of the corn barn is liable to decay unless precautions are used to prevent it; but a much too common cause of its destruction is vermin-such as rats and mice. I used a most effectual method of preventing the destructive ravages of either vermin or damp, by supporting the floor in the particular manner represented in fig. 129. Fig. 129.

SECTION OF THE CORN-BARN FLOOR.

The earth, in the first instance, was dug out of the barn to the depth of the foundation walls, which should be two feet below the door soles, and in the case of the building of a new steading, this can be done when the foundations of the walls are taken out. The ground is then spread over with a layer of sand, sufficient to preserve steadiness in the stout rough flags b b which are laid upon it and jointed in strong mortar. Twelve-inch thick sleeper walls a a, of stone and lime, are then built on the flags, to support the ends of the joists of the floor. The ends of the joists c, formed of 10 by 24 inch plank, are then laid on edge upon the walls 16 inches apart, and the spaces between them filled up to the top of the

joists with stone and lime. The building between the joists requires to be done in a peculiar way. It should be done with squared rubble stones, and on no account should the mortar come in contact with the joists, as nothing destroys timber, by superinducing the dry rot, more readily than the action of mortar. For the same reason care should be observed in building all the joists into the walls, in placing the safe-lintels over the doors and windows dry-bedded; and in beamfilling between the couple-legs. The floor d is then laid on a level with the door-sole, and finished with a neat skifting board i i round the walls of the barn. By this contrivance the vermin cannot possibly reach the floor but from the flags b, which are nearly 2 feet under it. A hewn stone pillar e, or even two, are placed on the flags under each joist to support and strengthen the floor. This construction of floor freely admits the air above and below to preserve it, and affords room under it for cats and dogs to hunt after the vermin. The figure also gives a section of the building above the corn-barn, constituting the upper barn f, having similar outside walls, coupling, slating, and ridging of the roof to the middle range of the building.

1682. The chaff-house stands between the corn and straw barns. It is separated from the former by a wooden partition, and from the latter by a stone wall. Its height is the same as that of the corn-barn, the floor of the upper barn forming a roof common to both. It is 18 feet in length and 14 feet in width. It contains the winnowing machine, or fanners of the thrashing-machine, from which it receives the chaff. It has a thin door with a thumb-latch into the strawbarn, for a convenient access to adjust the gearing of the fanners; as also a boarded window, hung on crooks and bands, fastened in the inside with a wooden hand-bar, and looking into the large court K; but its principal door, through which the chaff is emptied, opens outwards into the large court I.

This door should be gibletchecked, and fastened from the inside with a wooden hand-bar. The space between the head of the fanners and the wall should be boarded up, but not to interfere with the action of the fanner-belts, and merely to prevent the chaff being scattered among

the machinery, and persons climbing up by it into the upper barn.

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and chaff-house. It is 32 feet in length and 30 feet in breadth, and its roof ascends to the slates. It has a good wooden floor like the corn-barn, supported on stout joists. It contains the principal machinery of the thrashing-machine, and is wholly appropriated to the storing of the unthrashed corn previous to its being thrashed by the mill. For the admission of barrows loaded with sheaves from the stack-yard, or of sheaves direct from the cart, this barn should have a door at g towards the stack-yard of 6 feet in width, in two vertical folds to open outwards, on a giblet-check, one of the folds to be fastened in the inside with an iron cat-band, and the other provided with a good lock and key. It is in this barn that the corn is fed into the thrashing-mill; and to afford light to the man who feeds in, and ample light to the barn when the door is shut, which it should be when the wind blows strongly into it, a skylight should be placed above the place where the man stands. The large door should not be placed immediately behind the man who feeds in the corn into the thrashing - machine, as is frequently the case in farmsteads, to his great annoyance when the sheaves are bringing in. There should be slits in the walls for the circulation of air among the corn-sheaves, which may not at all times be in good order when taken into the barn. A hatchway a, 3 feet

square, in the floor, over the corn-barn below, is useful for handing up any corn or refuse that has to be again put through the mill. Its hatch should be furnished with strong cross-tailed hinges, and a hasp and staple, with a padlock and key, by which to secure it from below in the corn-barn. An opening 6 of 4 feet in height and 3 feet in width, should be made through the wall to the straw-barn, to receive any straw that may require to be put through the mill again. This opening should be provided with a door of one leaf, or of two leaves, to fasten with a bar, from the upper barn. The thrashing-machine is not built on the floor, but is supported on two very strong beams extending along the length of the barn: tis the site of the thrashing-machine in this figure. The allusion to the entrance to the wool-room when speaking of the straw-barn (in 1678,) is here shown by the stair c' into the wool-room w, which is above the bulls' hammels X, Plate II., and on a level with the upper barn d.

1684. Immediately in connexion with the upper barn is the gangway g, fig. 130. It is used as an inclined plane, upon which to wheel the corn-barrows, and forms a road for the carriers of sheaves from the stack-yard. This road should at all times be kept hard and smooth with small broken stones, and sufficiently strong to endure

the action of barrow-wheels. Either asphaltum or wood pavement would answer this purpose well. To prevent the gangway affecting the wall of the corn-barn with dampness, it should be supported on a semicircular arch of masonry. Some farmers prefer taking in the corn on carts instead of by a gangway, and the carts in that case are placed alongside the large door, and emptied of their contents by means of a fork. I prefer a gangway for this reason, because it enables the farmer to dispense with horse-labour in bringing in the stacks if they are near at hand, and they should always be built near the upper barn for convenience. Barns, in which flails alone are used for thrashing the corn, are made on the ground, and the barn-door is made as large as to admit a loaded cart to enter and empty its contents on the floor.

1685. In fig. 130, e e are two granaries over the cattle sheds, poultry-house, and hay-house. That on the left is 76 feet in length and 18 feet in width, and the other 65 feet in length and 18 feet in width. The side walls of both are 5 feet in height. Their roofs ascend to the slates, as in the upper barn ƒ fig. 129. Their wooden floors should be made strong, to support a considerable weight of grain; their walls made smooth with hair plaster; and a neat skifting-board should finish the flooring. Each granary has 6 windows, three in front and three at the back, and there is one in the left-hand gable. These windows should be formed to admit light and air freely; and I know of no form so capable of affording both, as fig. 131. The opening is 4 feet in length and 3 feet in height. In the frame a are a glazed sash 1 foot in height, composed of two rows of panes, and b Venetian shutters, which may be opened more or less at pleasure: c shows in section the Fig. 131.

GRANARY WINDOW AND SECTION OF SHUTTERS.

manner in which these shutters operate. They revolve by their ends, a round pin, in holes in the side-posts of the frame d, and are kept in a parallel position to each other by the bar c, which is attached to them by an eye of iron, moving stiff on an iron pin passing through both the eye and bar c. The granary on the right hand being the smallest, and immediately over the work-horse corn-chest in the hayhouse, should be appropriated to the use of horse-corn and other small quantities of grain to be first used. The other granary may contain seed-corn, or grain that is intended to be sold when the prices suit. For repairing or cleaning out the thrashingmachine, a large opening in the wall of this granary, exactly opposite the machinery of the mill in the upper barn, at t, fig. 130, will be found convenient. It should be provided with a movable board, or folding doors, to close it in, and to be fastened from the granary. This opening is not shown in fig. 130.

1686. S is the plan, Plate II., of the stack-yard. As most of the stacks must stand on the ground, it should receive that form which will allow the rain-water to run off and not injure their bottoms. This is done by forming the ground into ridges. The minimum breadth of these ridges may be determined in this way: The usual length of the straw of the grain crops can be conveniently packed in stacks of 15 feet diameter; and as 3 feet is little enough space to be left on the ground between the stacks, the ridges should not be of less width than 18 feet. The stack-yard should be enclosed with a substantial stone and lime wall of 4 feet in height. In too many instances the stack-yard is entirely unenclosed, and left exposed to the trespass of every animal. It is desirable to place the outside rows of the stacks next the wall on stools or stathels, which will not only keep them off the wet ground, should they remain a long time in the stack-yard, but in a great measure prevent vermin getting into the stacks. These stathels are usually and most economically made of stone supports and a wooden frame. The frame is of the form of an octagon, and under its centre and each angle is placed a support. The frame-work consists of a plank a a, fig. 132, 15 feet in length, and of others 7