Chapter XIX: Outbuildings and Accessories

There are various farm buildings which are better when more or less detached from the main barn; and some of these may now be mentioned.

POULTRY HOUSES

Until recently comparatively few persons have been financially successful in the poultry business when large numbers of fowls were kept in close quarters, as the many abandoned dilapidated yard fences and buildings testify. The reason for such failures was due, usually, to allowing too many fowls to run in one flock. It takes a genius to see and note the conditions of each individual animal once daily in a flock of several hundred birds. Break the flock up into several small ones, each of uniform size and character, and the individual fowl may then be more easily noted. A single diseased bird, if not removed, may serve to inoculate a whole flock with some contagious disease. If the flock contains but twenty to thirty individuals, the chance of discovering a drooping bird is greatly increased. This indicates that the poultry house or houses should be easily divided into rather small compartments. Poultry houses usually are about 12 feet wide and not more than 30 to 40 feet long. If more room is wanted than one house furnishes, another structure should be erected some little distance from any other one. This will give better opportunity to arrange for large runs or yards than does one long, continuous building. I have yet to see a large poultry establishment furnished with yards as large as they should be, and I have seen but few yards which were properly or fully shaded. The runs should be large and relatively narrow, and set to fruit trees. The plum is best, and may be set the usual distance apart. The trees should be sprayed and cared for as in well kept orchards, since the fruit may chance to be more profitable than the poultry. For the health of the fowls and the welfare of the trees, clean culture of the runs should be adopted. In the case of poultry buildings, the distributive method of construction should be adopted rather than the concentrated one. If the undertaking is begun with a well matured plan, these several small structures may not be unsightly when viewed as a whole. An illustration is given of a modest poultry plant large enough for 150 hens and 500 chicks, provided, however, that most of the chicks are sold when from three to six months old (Fig. 122). These structures are built on grout foundation walls to exclude vermin and moisture. The floors are of wood, the sills and plates 2 × 4 inches. The boarding is vertical and double, with paper between the two boardings. The outside boards are planed and battened; the roof boards, which are laid close together, are covered with paper and then shingled. The windows provide for light and, in part, for ventilation. These structures are dry on the inside, and the temperature, though not always above the freezing point in cold weather, is comfortable. The buildings might be reduced in number or in size, except the brooder house, and yet provide for the same number of birds, if movable coops for the smaller chickens were provided. The illustration (Fig. 123) shows a durable, light, movable coop large enough for twenty half pound chicks. The coop was designed for use on the lawn. It is inexpensive, and protects the chicks from all their ordinary enemies, both day and night. It weighs but 75 pounds, and can be moved easily by a child by means of a strap attached to one end. When used on the lawn, the coop should be moved and cleaned at least once daily, as fresh pasture for the chicks is thereby provided, injury to the grass prevented, the lawn being benefited by the excrements. The coop shown is 4 × 8 feet and 20 inches high, unfloored except the covered section, which has a tight floor, and roosts and suitable wooden and screen doors. A brood of chicks in such a coop would form superior facilities for nature-study work.

When poultry-raising is carried on on a large scale, the movable coops might be built 12 × 6 or 16 × 8 feet (Fig. 124), the latter the largest size which is easily movable without the aid of a horse. The corners of the sills should be mitered and held together by triangular pieces (Fig. 125). These coops will be found to be entirely satisfactory when used in a pasture or grass paddock near the chicken house. While experimenting with them, it was found that the birds did better when as many as thirty or more chicks were assigned to each large coop than when kept in the large, grassless runs.

The following bill of particulars may be of assistance in the construction of a lawn chicken-coop:

Sills 1 × 4 inches.
Posts 2 × 2 inches, 20 inches long.
Braces 1 × 1 inch.
Plates 1 × 2 inches.

The covered part of the coop is made of ³⁄₈-inch matched and beaded hard pine; the floor of any light wood ¹⁄₂-inch or ³⁄₄-inch, matched, but not beaded.

PIGGERIES

A piggery of any considerable size is the most difficult to plan of all farm structures. One of two methods may be adopted in the East with fairly satisfactory results. If there are woods and some pasture land adjoining or near to the barns, cheap separate pens (Fig. 126), one for each brood animal, may be built near the border of the wood or on the edge of it. There need be little more than a slanting roof, with the triangular corners at the ends boarded to keep out the wind. The earth forms a most comfortable bed if kept dry and covered thinly with leaves or straw. Of course, these pens are not suitable for brood animals farrowing during the winter months. Where but one litter of pigs is raised annually, there is little difficulty; if two litters a year be desired, the first one should be farrowed in April or May, and the other in September or October. In either case these cheap detached pens may be not only satisfactory, but they will serve to fit into a system of pig-raising which may be carried on at the minimum of labor and expense and supplementary foods. By means of a tank or barrel mounted on wheels the animals may be fed, either once or twice daily, in large troughs placed in the pasture. This system presupposes ample areas of grass and woodland, which should furnish not only a healthful run for the animals but much food for them.

Usually the mistake is made of confining pigs in small pens, which may or may not have attached to them small yards or runs. These are always devoid of grass, and offensively dusty and filthy a part of the year, and an impassable mud hole at other times. Wherever circumstances will permit, there should be allotted to each brood animal and her offspring one-fourth acre of land. Two small fields might be provided, one of which would serve for pasture ground for all the animals, while the other would be used for raising crops for soiling the pigs or for other purposes. When the lot became fertilized from the droppings of the animals and the grass injured, it should be plowed, cropped and seeded, the animals being pastured meantime in the other field.

Cheap but somewhat more elaborate pens are shown in Fig. 127. These may be built in detached pairs, or several pens may be placed in juxtaposition. Each pen, including the small outside yard and feeding floor, both unroofed, is 16 × 16 feet. The part roofed is 8 × 8 feet. After the pigs have attained some size, all doors are opened and the entire herd may be grazed in one field.

A better but more expensive piggery, Figs. 128 and 129, shows five pens, though the plan lends itself to a greater or lesser number. The area devoted to each bed is 8 × 8 feet. The driveway, which also serves for temporary storage of manures, is 8 feet wide and extends lengthwise through the building. The floor of the driveway should be about one foot lower than the feeding and sleeping floors at the middle, and should be paved or asphalted. (See cross section, Fig. 129.) The feeding floor upon which the troughs rest may be 4 or 5 feet long, and should descend towards the driving floor. Ordinary gates are hung to the posts which serve, with the boarding, to separate the pens. These gates are fastened at the other end of the posts which separate the feeding compartments. When so fastened each brood animal has a bedroom 8 × 8, a receptacle for manure 8 × 8, and a feeding floor 4 × 8 feet. This arrangement presupposes that most of the foods will be fed in the troughs. If, when the animals are first placed in the pens, the paved portion of the floor be soiled with dirt and water, the excreta thereafter will be deposited by the animals on this floor and not in the bedroom. The pig is really a cleanly animal if it is given a few timely sensible hints. When it is desired to remove the manure the gates are all swung to the right or left, as most convenient, and they then serve to fasten all of the animals in the bed compartments, and the driveway is left unobstructed. One of the outside openings to the driveway should also be provided with a gate to swing in, as well as an ordinary door to swing out. These pens may all be thrown open in the summer when it is desired to pasture the herd.

The illustration shows a small wing attached which may serve many useful purposes. A matched upper floor and abundant light and ventilation should be provided. The roof story may be used for housing some corn in the ear and straw for bedding. In cold weather the upper floor should have some straw left on it to promote warmth in the pens below.

The object in discussing these three styles of piggeries has been to emphasize cleanliness, economy of labor in caring for the animals, the comfort of the animals, prevention of wanton waste of manure, and economy in the production of healthy swine in piggeries so arranged that the animals may be conveniently grazed during the summer, and kept reasonably clean and comfortable in winter.

THE SILO

The Egyptians, the Romans, and the American Indians all stored grain in pits or silos which were air-tight, or as nearly so as large rude structures could be made. The custom of using silos for storing grain in Spain and France never became common, though several attempts were made to preserve large quantities of grain for several years, that the overproduction of one year might be kept until there were deficient harvests.

The subject of ensilaging green “roughage” material attracted attention in the United States soon after 1870. As early as 1875, Doctor Manly Miles, then connected with the Illinois Industrial University, was fairly successful in preserving the green tops of broom corn in an earthen silo. Interest in the subject of preserving green material in silos was widely aroused in America by the appearance of a book on ensilage, translated in 1878-9. The book was published in France in 1877, by M. Auguste Goffart.

When the practice of ensilaging green material for feeding animals was first introduced into the United States there was much discussion as to the construction of silos. Many advocated building them of stones, brick, or grout, though some were built of wood. As a rule, they were built either square or in the form of a parallelogram, in a few cases octagonal. Experience soon showed that the silage was preserved better in the wooden silo than in those constructed of other material. For this reason, and because the wooden silo is most cheaply constructed, wood is now in universal use for building them.

At first heavy frames were erected which were covered with two, three, and even four thicknesses of boards. Sometimes building paper was placed between the inner and outer boards. The octagon and the round silo soon supplanted those having square corners. As built, too often the walls could not be or were not fully ventilated. The thick walls remained more or less damp throughout the entire year or, if dried out when empty, lack of ventilation superinduced dry rot. Cases were not infrequent where silos were found to be practically useless without rebuilding in four or five years. Where everything was at its best, the frequent shrinking and swelling of the wood resulted finally in so destroying its elasticity that it did not return to its normal size when the silo was refilled. Since there was no means of tightening these silos the air soon entered them freely, which resulted in serious loss of fodder. By reason of the costliness and defects of stone and grout silos, and the failure in many cases of square-cornered wooden ones to preserve the material satisfactorily, and because of their perishable nature, much attention has been given to the shape and material of silos.

From all the evidence attainable, the conclusion is reached that the round, tall, stave silo is best. It is simple in construction, inexpensive as compared with most other kinds, and reasonably durable. The fact that it dries out fully during the summer, thereby destroying all germs of decay, coupled with the other fact that at any time it can be made tight by means of the hoops which serve to hold the staves in place, makes the round, stave silo par excellent. The staves should be two inches thick and from four to six inches wide, bevelled to suit the size of the structure. The hoops are usually of round galvanized iron one-half inch in diameter. They are placed about three feet apart, the spaces between the hoops being wider near the top than they are near the bottom. The hoops are made in sections of variable lengths; the ends of each section are furnished with lugs, that the hoop may be shortened and the silo tightened with ease. The illustration (Fig. 130) shows an emergency silo built of rough green hemlock plank unbevelled, hooped with “American woven wire fence.” It is 24 feet high, 12 feet in diameter, cost $35, and has a nominal capacity of 50 tons. A flat board roof serves to keep out the snow and most of the rain. It is placed in the open to test its durability. It has been in use one year, and so far it is entirely satisfactory, though the staves would be better if they had been beveled.

How long will this inexpensive silo last? That remains to be determined. Judging from other silos of similar construction which were erected several years ago, I judge it will last 15 or 20 years with slight repairs. When left thus exposed, will the silage freeze during the winter? In extremely cold weather in central New York, when the thermometer drops to 10° or 15° below zero, the material at the top will freeze. If straw be spread over the silage to the depth of a few inches, it will prevent the escape of heat and freezing. A portion of the straw covering is thrown back out of the way, the silage wanted removed, and the covering returned. Such precaution is only necessary during a few of the coldest days.