Farm Buildings/Chapter 1
FARM BUILDINGS.
CHAPTER I.
HOMESTEAD OR STEADING.
The various buildings necessary for the occupation and proper working of a farm are collectively known in England as the Homestead, and in Scotland as the Onstead or Steading. Throughout this book we shall use the word Homestead, so that there may be no confusion of terms.
Accommodation necessary—The usual farm buildings include accommodation for the farmer and his family, for the labourers employed on the land, for the various kinds of live-stock, for manipulating grain-crops, for storing, preparing, and mixing food for cattle, and for implements and machinery of all kinds, etc.
The requirements in these respects are very different to-day from what they were a few years ago, the improvements in farm machinery and in preparing food for stock, and also the greater numbers of stock fed, having necessitated a complete change in the plans and arrangement of farm buildings.
The accommodation necessary varies in size and arrangement according to the extent of the farm, the nature of the principal crops, and the system of management pursued. The same farm which under one system maintains a certain number of sheep and cattle, and requires the labour of so many horses, may, perhaps, under a different system of husbandry, support two or three times the quantity of stock, and increase the demand proportionately for horse-labour.
Each system of husbandry, too, will give prominence to certain departments of the homestead. Thus in a dairy farm, the cow-house and the dairy offices are the chief feature. On a fattening farm, prominence must be given to boxes and covered yards, and to the arrangements for preparing food. On a mixed farm, which generally partakes of all systems, the buildings must be more numerous, and suited in some respects to all purposes.
The buildings and offices necessary for a perfect homestead on a mixed husbandry farm, will consist of—
- Farmhouse
- Cottages
- Corn-barn
- Straw-barn
- Granary
- Chaff-room
- Pulping-room
- Mill-room
- Mixing-floor
- Boiling-house
- Hay and grain sheds
- Silos
- Implement-sheds
- Cart-sheds
- Tool-house
- Manure-house
- Root-stores
- Potato-house
- Cow-houses
- Calf-pens
- Stalls for cattle
- Boxes for cattle
- Covered yards
- Sheds with open yards
- Piggeries
- Stables
- Sheep-sheds
- Poultry-house
- Dairy
- Smith's and carpenter's shop
- Mess-room
- Engine-house
- Wool-store
- Slaughterhouse.
We may classify farms under the respective heads of arable, stock, and dairy, and as many sub-divisions as we please. But sub-divisions are not as a rule sharply distinguished from each other, and merely indicate the prevailing features of the farm or the district, such features being generally controlled by circumstances of soil, situation, and climate.
Thus, in a corn farm, a certain proportion of stock is fattened and dairy produce is prepared, although its staple may be grain. The arable stock farm is principally devoted to the rearing and fattening of cattle for the fat markets, and crops and field operations are all directed with a view to that object. In the case of a dairy farm, the ultimate object of the farmer is the obtaining of milk for sale or for the manufacture of butter and cheese, and stock is selected and crops grown suitable for such objects.
Site of the homestead—As the health of the livestock is of supreme importance, farm buildings ought to be placed in situations securing, as far as possible, abundant water-supply, good drainage, freedom from damp, and a sheltered yet airy situation.
It is needless to add that the homestead should be as near the centre of the farm as possible, and that the buildings should abut upon a hard road. Scattered buildings are very objectionable; for although fieldbarns and yards economise cartage of both crop and manure, they occasion great loss of time in attending to stock, and the stock in the outlying yards can never be so much under the master's eye as is desirable. The best arrangement for outlying fields beyond reach of the dung-cart is not outlying barn-yards, but sheepfolding and green manuring.
The best aspect for stock is south-east by south.
Arrangement of farm buildings—A great deal of labour is saved by an economical arrangement of the various compartments of a building. The various parts should be so compacted that operations dependent on each other, or following in consecutive order, should be performed in immediate proximity; and the saving of all unnecessary labour, as well as the prompt and rapid execution of work, ought always to be kept prominently in view.
The position of the barn, the food-stores, and mixing floor, will generally be found the key to the whole range of farm buildings, as most of the labour at the homestead is connected with these departments.
It is usually found that farm buildings of moderate extent come together most conveniently in the form of three sides of a square or parallelogram. The space lying between the projecting sides is either roofed over or left as an open court.
Advantages of covered yards—It goes without saying that there is no homestead equal to a covered homestead. Any improvement in shelter for stock is equivalent to an actual shortening of winter. The average temperature of the bodies of our cattle is about 100°, or 40° higher than the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere. Hence there must be some provision in the animal body to sustain the heat, which is absolutely necessary for the performance of its functions. The air being so much colder than the body, must constantly draw from its heat and tend to lower its temperature. We all know that an animal exposed to more cold will eat more, and one better housed and warmer kept will eat less. The explanation is that warmth is an equivalent for food, and that, therefore, food may be economised by protecting cattle from cold. Too much stress cannot be put upon this point, and it does not apply merely to pure-bred stock, for in all cases it is absolute economy of food. It applies also to every age of stock. There is no fear of young animals growing up tender in a covered yard, provided it is roomy and well ventilated. The ventilation, however, should come from above the animals; there must be no draughts in a covered yard. The better manufacture and preservation of manure under cover is another important consideration; but this will be found more particularly noticed on pages 78 and 117.
Outlay on Farm Buildings—It would not be very satisfactory, perhaps, to attempt to lay down any rule as to the proportion of capital per acre which it is necessary to invest in buildings on any particular class of farm. The class of building, the material used, local circumstances, as well as the extent of the farm and the value of the land, all tend to disturb calculation.
Mr. Denton tells us in "The Farm Homesteads of England", that assuming everything is substantially done, farms of 1,000 acs. and upwards, of tillage and mixed husbandry, will require an outlay in house and homestead of £4,000 to £5,000, or £4 10s. per acre; that farms of between 500 and 1,000 acs. of tillage and mixed husbandry, will require an oulay of £2,500 to £4,000, or £6 per acre ; and that farms of between 200 and 500 acs. of mixed or dairy husbandry will require an outlay of £1,500 to £3,000, or £7 per acre. In many cases, it is added, these rates are exceeded, and £10 an acre is expended in buildings.
There are many instances within our own knowledge and experience where the outlay on buildings has ranged from £5 to £10 per acre. That represents 5s. to 10s. per acre of additional rent-charge at 5 percent. Under the present circumstances of agriculture, however, no land will support that outlay on buildings. At the same time, improved buildings and increased building accommodation is on numerous farms urgently needed. The solution of the difficulty therefore seems to lie in a more economical arrangement of the buildings, and in the discovery of cheaper material and methods of construction.
It appears to be tolerably well agreed upon amongst agriculturists and architects that at the present time a substantial homestead—walls, roofs, and fittings, all included—cannot be built for much less than £10, while the cost often amounts to £15, a square. Haysheds, and the like, can, however, be completed for something like £3 to £5 a square.
Who Bears the Cost?—The landlord is supposed to make the needful outlay in buildings, but in reality he seldom does so. When the outlay is made a rent-charge to be paid by the tenant, it is assumed to be paid by the land. The land, however, is frequently over-rented before the outlay is made, and practically in such cases to charge the tenant interest on the expenditure is to saddle him with the entire outlay. A landlord of our acquaintance recently borrowed money under the Land Improvement Act to build a pair of cottages on one of his farms where they were much wanted; and because the tenant of the said farm refused to pay a full annual rent for the new cottages, in addition to 6 per cent, on outlay to reimburse the borrowed money, he actually did not get the use of the cottages after all.
And, on many estates—many of the largest estates in the country—it is a very common practice for the tenant to be required to draw all the materials for new buildings at his own cost. He has to do this very often, and in addition pay the rent-charge to redeem the actual expenditure. Now the horses and regular staff on a farm are generally just sufficient for the regular tillage operations of the farm, and if this haulage of material is undertaken, that work must suffer. Moreover the haulage of materials is a very important item in the cost of a building, and it is only reasonable that if a tenant does this part of the work that he should be paid for it at its value. He might then be able to afford the payment of interest on the building outlay, but he cannot also be expected to undertake the haulage of materials at his own cost.