44T    THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



I have no objections to the former mode when
applied to old and matured animals, provided
they have sufficient light and ventilation; but
as for sheep, colts and young cattle, give
them open sheds fronting to the south, and
plenty of room for exercise. Some one has
said it is better to have racks and feed-boxes
under thie sheds. I think he is right.
  In the summer season, the shade of a tree
during the heat of the day is a grateful shel-
ter to most animals. In fields where there are
no trees, the evil should be remedied as soon
as possible by planting hardy trees of quick
growth, which will not throw up suck-ers by
cultivation, along the margin of the pasture, or
field intended for pasture. They will not
only n'ake good shelter for stock, but will be
highly ornamental and valuable in other re-
spects.
  The question which usually comes first in
building is, what will be the best and cheap-
est kind of building? This depends some-
what upon circumstances. In extreme cases,
crotches put in the ground, with poles or rails
over them and a stack of straw over and
around the whole, except one side. Sods of
turf from the marsh will also answer for walls
between the crotches, in the absence of straw.
Next come log sheds with thatched roof, and
better still, good posts set three feet in the
ground with girths running horizontally be-
tween them with inch boards nailed vertically
upon them, the roof made of inch boards, and
the whole well battened. Any of these con-
trivances are better than none, but still not
good enough for a genuine enterprising far-
mer, and, perhaps, considering all things, they
are no cheaper than good, substantial build.
ings. A frame building with sills and shin.
gled roof, and inch boards firmly nailed in i
vertical position upon the sides, makes an ex.
cellent shed; but far the best and cheapest
material we have yet tried is stone. Hun-
dreds of farmers in this State have this ma
terial strewed in abundance over their farms
piled in fence corners and on the road side



rough, hard, ill-shapen blocks, which many
fame     r at Ini wit -n -o -uW          .~



to do with. Yet even these can be worked up
nto beautiful walls by a good workman with
L good steel hammer, and this, too, at but lit-
le more cost than the carpenter work on a
wooden building of the same size. True, it
Is some trouble to draw them from different
parts of the farm, but after they are walled
up we have the satisfaction of seeing a men-
ument to our perseverance which will stand
ror centuries, and as for utility, they are ex-
actly suited to this climate-a warm shed for
winter and a cool one for summer. Of course,
such sheds need ventilation, which can be had,
to our liking, by putting in trap doors and
windows.
Stone buildings are especially valuable for
swine and poultry, the thickness of the walls
maintaining a moderate temperature through-
out the year.
  But for fear of trespassing upon the valu-
able columns of the FAamER, we conclude by
urging upon farmers who have not already
done so, to provide some good shelter for their
stock, and surely they will find ample reward.
                            JOHn RnODnSi.



               COst Of Fences.

  Mr. Cornell, late President of the New York
State Agricultural Society, in his address,
makes the following remarks in regard to the
relative cost of fencing land in large and
small fields:
  "To fence a farm into square fields of two
and a half acres each, crediting half the
fence to the adjoining field, requires forty
rods of fence, or sixteen rods per acre, which,
at $15 per thousand for rails, and $10 per
thousand for stakes, will cost at least thirty
cents per rod or $4 80 per acre, and entail an
annual expense in the interest of money, nat-
ural decay of material, and labor for repairs, of
nearly or quite $1 per acre. Fields of five
acres each require eleven and a half rods per
acre, costing $3 45 per acre. Ten-acre fields
require eight rods of fence per acre, costing
$2 40 per acre.  Twenty-acre fields reduce
the fence to five and a half rods per acre, at a
cost of $1 65 per acre. Forty acres in a field
require but four rods to an acre; aad one
hundred acres may be enclosed in one field
with two and a half rods per acre, costing 76
,..eianospr onrO.



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farmers are at their wit s end to knOw W ---



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