Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/539

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

FARM HOUSES AND FARMERIES IN VARIOUS STYLES. 515 1031 ouildings are not of sufficient extent to enclose three sides of the straw or cattle yard, and where the surface of the ground is a declivity, is, the facility of carting in corn to the threshing-mill loft in winter, and turnips for the byres in sharp seasons ; and clover for the stable and byres in summer. The disadvantages of adhering strictly to this plan, which is taken from an old steading, are the narrowness of the threshing-miU course for a 103 rapDf hH [ -1 — I — !- mill of four-hojfc power. The machinery, too, being across the house, is too much con- fined, admitting of only one shaker (a part of the machine), which throws the straw on the loft, imperfectly freed from the grain. In the present instance the ground occupied by the steading is on a dry freestone rock, and the lower part of the range does not suffer from damp, to prevent which expensive draining would be necessary for a similar range on humid soils. A turnip-house placed at the back of the feeding-byre is a desideratum