An out

Irish landlords say they cannot attempt them. lay, ranging from £2000 up to £4000 for the accommodation requisite for seventy or eighty head of cattle, fourteen horses, and corresponding implements and crop, involves a present outlay, and a constant charge, for which they can get no adequate return. Designs of a cheaper character are much sought for; and having been frequently applied to for information on this matter, I have, with the assistance of my friend Mr M'Culloch of Auchness, prepared the annexed Plan, which will be found to afford nearly the same accommodation, for, I believe, about one-third the expenditure of those already referred to.

The buildings of a farm are required to afford accommodation for the working stock, the rent-paying stock, feeding conveniences, the threshing of the corn crop, and the collection and manufacture of manure. They should be placed in the most central part of the farm, at which a constant supply of water for the stock can be insured. Advantage should be taken of water-power for machinery, if it can be got.

A level piece of ground should be chosen for the site of the buildings, in order that no unnecessary expenditure may be requisite in earth-work. And for the West of Ireland, the stables, as in the annexed plan, should form the west side; the barn, straw-house, &c., the north side of the range; thus securing the shelter of the highest part of the buildings against the prevailing winds.

The farm-house, with dairy, &c., are supposed to occupy the south front of the plan; but they are not

172

THEIR CONSTRUCTION

included in the estimate ; nor are the labourers' cottages,

; which should be situated at no great distance from the farm-buildings.

It will be seen that this plan affords accommodation for ten horses and eighty cattle in stalls, besides implement-house, barn, granary, straw and chaff house, clover or turnip house, boiling-house, covered dung-house and tank for saving liquid manure, pig and poultry houses. It is suitable for a farm of 200, 300, or 400 acres, according to the proportions of tillage and the style of farming pursued, being sufficiently extensive for a 400acre farm managed on the system described by Mr Stephens in his Book of the Farm, and not a bit too large for a 200-acre farm cultivated in the more improved system now believed requisite to ensure profit with a moderate scale of prices.

The preservation and accumulation of dung is the foundation of this system; and, accordingly, the plan includes a dung-house roofed over to prevent the action of the air and weather, and beneath it an arched tank capable of containing about 8000 gallons, into which covered drains, from the stables and cattle-houses, conduct the whole liquid manure. This is unquestionably the most important part of the whole farm-steading, and yet it is almost the only portion which is wholly omitted in the expensive designs already mentioned. *

The wheeling of the dung from the different stables and cattle-houses is so arranged, that the heaviest part

a

of the labour is brought nearest to the dung-house; the farm-stables, where each man carries out from two horses only, being the most distant. For the same reason, the turnip-house, and straw and boiling houses, are placed in the most convenient juxtaposition with the cattle-houses.

A considerable extent of granary room is shown on this plan, which may be divided for various purposes, according to the wants of the tenant.

Windows in the walls of the cattle-houses have been avoided, as leading to expense in lintels, corners, &c. The access of light is equally secured, and at much less cost, by skylights in the roof. Ventilation is provided by large drain-tiles being built through the walls, one to

every pair of cattle, a little above the ground-level, behind each row of cattle; while the escape of foul air is secured by an equal number of tile-holes, a little under the caves, as shown at b on the section of the plan.

It will be observed that the system of stall-feeding is that shown in this plan. A considerable comparative experience has convinced me that no other method will give equal accommodation for the same outlay; whilst I am also persuaded that, in regard to economy of food and litter, facility of labour in attendance, health and progress of the cattle, and systematic arrangement altogether, stall-feeding is superior to any other that has yet come under my notice. The progress of the soiling system, or house-feeding of cattle in summer as well as winter, will lead to a more general recognition of the superiority of stall-feeding, both from the neces

sity of economising litter, and the advantage of not wasting the labour of the cattle-feeders and others in traversing unnecessary distances while attending to the stock.

The east front of the plan is left vacant; but it can be filled, as shown by the dotted lines, either with increased cattle-houses, or sheds for sheep-feeding, as may in the course of time be found requisite.

The cattle-stalls may be devoted either wholly to the feeding of cattle, to the accommodation of a dairy stock, or to a mixed stock of breeding, feeding, and dairy cattle.

The expense of erection will be very materially lessened by the use of pan-tiles for roofing; and for this reason the proprietor of an extensive estate would find it to his advantage to manufacture them on his own account.

The specifications for masonry, wood, &c., are as follows:

Stable and Cart-shed.

Masonry of walls, 22 inches thick. 12 barrels of lime to the

mason rood of 36 yards square. Joists, 9 inches by 24 inches, 20 inches from centres. Flooring, 17 inch thick. Couples, 7 inches at bottom, 6 at top, 24 inches thick. Lath, 17 inch by 4 inch. Cast-iron skylights, glazed. Windows, glass above and sliders below. Stall posts, 6 inches square, divisions 11 inch thick. Manger, wood 1 inch thick. Heck sides, 4 inches by 2

inches. Heck spars, 2 inches square.

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