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Show GOOD FARM BUILDINGS Materials for Cow Houses, Stables Sta-bles and Pigstyes. Floor of Structure Intended for Accommodation Ac-commodation of Live Stock Should Be Impermeable and Non-Absorbent as Possible. (By W. R. GILBERT.) Since the introduction of Portland cement concrete as a floor-laying material ma-terial there has been no excuse for uncomfortable un-comfortable and Inefficient floors at the homestead. To be efficient, the floor of a house Intended for the accommodation ac-commodation of live stock must to as great a degree as possible be both impermeable im-permeable and non-absorbent. If it be neither, it will be liable to become offensive of-fensive itself, and will lead to the same condition in the soil upon which it lies as well. Flagstones of good quality and finish and flooring tiles may reach a high standard in these respects, re-spects, but unless they are very carefully care-fully jointed liquid matter will leak through the seams and polute the soil underneath. If with such as these it Is difficult to keep the subsoil wholesome, whole-some, it need never be attempted with Irregularly finished slabs, far less with small boulders, as paving stones. Concrete can, however, be laid with- 76" ' 96" j out joint or crack in the whole area covered. It is impervious to water; moisture cannot pass down through it, nor can ground damp pass up. It can be worked into forms required in such places, and it wears well. A further advantage is its comparative cheapness. cheap-ness. Another is the effective resistance resist-ance that it gives to rats; these untiring un-tiring "sappers and miners" are nonplussed non-plussed when faced by a well-laid concrete con-crete floor. Open channels alone are permissible in the buildings we are dealing with; covered drains can never be kept sanitary sani-tary in these places not, at any rate,, under the treatment it is found practicable practi-cable to bestow upon them there. Here, again, concrete comes to the front on account of the regularity and smoothness of outline it is possible to give them in that material. A concrete con-crete channel can be effectively swept or scraped with ease, and a bucket or two of water swilled along its course will leave it comparatively sweet and clean. Limitations of Concrete. But while concrete is eminently well adapted for flooring the parts of farm buildings that are liabel to be soiled by the tied-up animals, it is not so well suited for their stalls or lairs. It is all right as regards smoothness, but it seems to be too cold for both cows and pigs to lie upon unless abundance abund-ance of bedding or litter is at the disposal dis-posal of the attendants. When heavy horses come it Is hardly durable enough; the pounding of their iron-bound iron-bound heels are too much for concrete. The passages and channels of the three places we started with can have no better flooring medium than concrete, con-crete, but something a little warmer and less unyielding is required for both cows and pigs to lie upon. Horses might be left to take advantage of its Bmoothness were it more durable against their heels, because they usually usu-ally have more bedding afforded them and they have less time to lie down. Brick Pavement Makes a very suitable floor for the" cow's stall, and it answers equally well for the pig's bed. Well shaped building bricks laid on a bed of lime or cement serve the purpose admirably. admira-bly. The cows can never soil their stall floors, provided the building is arranged to meet their requirements; neither do the bigs mess their sleeping sleep-ing place provided it is kept clear of the rest of the floor space. At this rate there is not much likelihood of the soil beneath the brick pavement ever getting contaminated by excretal matter, even when the bricks are simply sim-ply bedded on sand or ashes and are not grouted. But when bedded on lime and grouted with cement, a firm, ( ' ' h rt 1 ( y u 7'3" r 5" :.arj 7'3" j lJ : ' sound job is the result, and a surface of this sort will respond to a swilling vrith water as readily as the parts of the floor in concrete do. Stable Stalls. Something harder than brick is of course required for the stable stall. I "Setts" or paving blocks, cither of ' grauite or "whin," say S::-ix5-inch, 6Uit very well. Bedding them in lime, and grouting them in cement, both as advised for the brick pavement, make a strong job. This pavement may be kept two feet or so back from the i wall that the horses face against, but ! It should be continued'to the one side or other of the channel behind the horses. Concrete comes in very t-Jit able for the remainder of the floor The narrow strip in front, if laid with it, keeps rats at defiance. Rats are always al-ways sure of something in the stable stalls, but they will not venture there unless they are free to shelter in the floor beneath. . Fig. 1 is a cross-section of a floor such as we are describing. It shows a building IS feet wide iuside. It may safely be more; to make it less is not advisable. The stable, as well as the cowhouse and pigstye, should, as we have already said, be without covered drains inside. As far as practicable, one should make an open channel serve to carry away liquid matter from the stable. There is never sa much urine from horses as from the cows, however; but there is usually more fall given in the stalls of the stables sta-bles than in those of the cowhouse, and the stances for the geldings have to be floored in such a way that the stalings may be readily concentrated and led to the gutter. It is sometimes some-times necessory, however, to make use of short lengths of these. Fig. 2 represents the cross-section of a good Double Cowhouse. The cows face the walls, their beds or lairs being 7 feet 3 inches long frorn the wall to the edge of the "grip." The beds are almost level in this direction. They have more or less incline the other way, in accordance with the general rake of the building, but as little as can be given. A glazed fire-clay trough sits on the floor in front of each cow. The troughs are kept back from the wall about the breadth of a brick, so that the animals, ani-mals, when in the act of using, may not damage their horns against the wall. The "grip" is 21 inches broad, 6 inches deep at the side next to the cattle stances and from 3 inches to 4 inches alongside the central passage. The bottom of the "grip" has a dip of IVz inches from the one side to the other, and lengthwise as much fall as will quickly lead fluid matter to the outlet provided for its discharge. It sometimes happens that the cowhouse may be too long to admit of the channels chan-nels being run continuously or on the same grade the whole length of the building. Were the floor in general given a good "rake' or incline from one end to the other there would be no difficulty in giving a fairly long stretch to the "grip." Its conformation conforma-tion and smoothness enable it to clear itself quickly of liquid matter. But as we have indicated, it is not advisable to give a building of the kind much of a hang lengthwise, else the cows will have a tilt that way when lying. Their beds we have advised to be made as level as is practicable from wall to "grip," and this holds good with regard re-gard to their cross-section, too. It will be noticed from the figure that the passage up the center of the cowhouse is a little lower than the cow stands on each side. This is in order to give the cows a better position when critics crit-ics are about. The travises or divisions divi-sions between stalls are of concrete, and between three and four inches thick. Each stall, we need hardly add, holds two cows. A cowhouse, finished as I have been describing, and properly proper-ly ventilated, does not call for much improvement, one would think. The cross-section of A Double Pigstye Is represented in Fig. 3. Concrete la again much in evidence, as will be seen. The beds are of brick, however. They are raised a few inches above the general floor level. Where this ( h i i i i i t-r IV V'l i , i i i 1 t j 5- ; 4" ; 4" j 4- i s" ; 1 method is adopted it will be found that the pigs rarely mess these "platforms." "plat-forms." When feeding they void excrement ex-crement enough, but then it falls on the concrete floor between the trough and the raised bed. The liquid matter escapes either underneath or round the troughs into the channel alongside along-side the passage; and the solid mattei can easily be removed from where it fell with shovel or scraper, without leaving much trace behind It. The feeding troughs are of a glazed fireclay. fire-clay. They are low In front, but have high sloping backs, tending outwards into the passage, over which projection projec-tion the food can easily be tipped from bucket or ladle. Cross-piece3 from front to back keep each snout from boring from right to left In the trough. The high back of the troughs help to make out the front barrier of each division di-vision or pen. Iron rods stretched above these, as the section shows, complete it effectually, while they admit ad-mit of a clear view of the place. It simplifies matters when doors to the pen can be dispensed with at the passage side and be put in the back wall instead. This affords increased trough space, and is otherwise convenient con-venient enough. The semi-solid excreta ex-creta can be easily removed by the back, a concrete barrow track being carried along one end of the platform to the doorway, if so wished, but a narrower strip will serve. A run of water from one end of the house to the other will do the rest of the cleaning clean-ing effectually. The effluent will eas-, eas-, ily repay the cost of a tank placed where st:ch can be conveniently inter-! inter-! cepted. The iigures. it must be borne ' in mind, are suitable only for smallish small-ish pigs; for larger animals they must be increased proportionately. Lighted Light-ed and ventilated as advised for the cowhouse, a place such as the above merits the name of pigbouse In place of pigstye. |