Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/429

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR FARMERIES. 405 feet The first use is now, in all the best-planned farmeries, supplied by troughs or cisterns from pumps ; while the horses' feet are either washed in the stable with water in pails ; or the horses are made to walk repeatedly through a narrow trough with a paved bottom, and with oak or stone sides. This trough, which ought to be placed near a pump, and opposite the stables, in the side of the passage between the buildings and the dung-yard, may be three feet wide, six inches deep at the two ends, and gradually increasing in depth to the middle, where there may be three feet of water. It must be acknowledged, however, that in many, perhaps in most cases, the best mode is to wash the legs of horses while in the stable ; because, when they are ridden into a pond or trough, while warm from the plough or the cart, they are very apt to catch a cold or rheumatism from the sudden chill produced by the cold water. This will chiefly depend on the distance which the horses have walked after they have left off work. Horses taken out of the gin wheel of a threshing-macliine should never either be driven through a pond or through a trough, for similar reasons, as will be obious to every farmer. In all cases, when the feet and legs of horses are washed, they should be immediately rubbed dry with straw and cloths. 807. The Yards of Farmeries are, the corn-yard, the hay or dried herbage yard, the cattle-yard, the sheep-yard, the poultrj'-yard, the dung-yard, the implement-yard, and, in large farmeries, the yard for the carpenter and smitli. 808. The Corn- Yard is that which contains the stacks of corn, and should always be placed adjoining the barn, and on the most elevated and airy side of the farmery. The size ought to be regulated by the size of the arable part of the farm, and of the barn ; because no rick ought to be made larger than what could be contained at one time by the corn bay, or end for unthreshed corn, of the barn ; and, consequently, a small barn will require a larger rick-yard than a large one. The form, in this case, as in almost every other yard or building on a farm, ought to be rectangular, and as near as may be convenient to that of a square. Acute-angled or round forms are necessarily attended with loss of space, and great inconvenience both in building the ricks, and in removing them to the barn. The ricks ought to be placed in parallel rows, with a sufficient space between every two rows, for a cart to pass along, either to unload when building the ricks, or to load when taking them into the barn. Round the ricks, on the margin of the yard, there ought to be a space sufficiently wide for a loaded cart ; and at the angles this space ought to be increased by the omission of a rick, in order to adiuit of the cart's turning roimd easily. All the ricks ought to be placed upon stands or saddles, so as to keep them dry and safe from rats and mice. These stands are of diflferent kinds, some of which we shall notice. 809. The Rick Stand most common in countries where wood is the cheapest material is formed of oak piUars inserted in the ground, and standing two feet high above it, with a frame over them composed of joists of any cheap wood. The plan is round when the ricks are to be small and rectangular, and generally a parallelogram, when the ricks are to be large. 810. TJie rick stand, in wet climates, where the corn is frequently obliged to be carried before it is perfectly dry, has, in addition to the flooring of joists, a funnel, formed by a frame of wood, carried up from the flooring to the summit of the rick, passing, or at least which ought to pass, through it, and terminating in a light cap of sheet iron. The funnel is conunonly not carried higher than two thirds of the height of the rick, but this often defeats the object in view, for, from the sluggish nature of air, it will not ascend freely unless it have a clear passage from the base of the stack to the summit ; and there- fore the funnels, to be efficacious, ought always to be carried through the thatch of the rick. 811. TTie rick stand, in countries where stone is more abundant than wood, and where central funnels are unnecessary, is frequently nothing more than a wall two feet high, of the size and shape of the intended rick, with a coping of stone or wood, project- ing at least six inches over the wall outwards, to impede the ascent of vermin. ITie foundations of this wall should be a foot or more beneath the surface, to prevent vermin from burrowing under it. The interior space may be partially filled with earth or loose stones, according to the nature of the soU, keeping in view the importance of pre- venting the ascent of damp into the rick. 812. TTie rick stand, where cast and wrought iron are cheap materials, may be formed of cast-iron piUars set on stone plinths, with cast-iron copings and joists ; and a cylindri- cal funnel of wrought-iron round rods held together at intervals by circular rods, and terminating in a cap above the thatch. Corn stands and funnels of this kind, but not carried through the thatch, and without the cap, are not uncommon in the iron districts of Scotland; having been first invented by jNIitchell of Balquharn, near Alloa, in Stirlingshire. 813. A square or parallelogram rich stand, fig. 725, is maniifactured by Messrs,