Rudimentary treatise on agricultural engineering

Front matter

RUDIMENTARY TREATISE

ON

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING;

CHAPTER I. Choice of situation for erecting the Steading

Prize Essays and Plans of the Royal Agricultural Society

. 17

Steading for a 400-Acre Farm

. 24

Lord Torrington's Model Homestead

. 26

. 28

Cow Byres .....

. 30

Mr. Timm's Farm, near Frimley, Surrey

. 32

A Scotch Steading ....

. 36

Design for a large Steading ....

. 38

CHAPTER II. Stables

The Cart-Horse Stable

Drainage .....

Ventilation ....

Boxes and Stalls .....

The Builock-fattening Shed .

Cow Byres . . . . .

f>b

Calf Pens .

The Piggery . . ' -f OCTET ^1'

Sheep Sheds . . . luOOO t

69 72

CONTENTS.

Bull House Cattle Hammels Cattle Infirmary Straw Yards .

Poultry House Pigeon Houses Rabbitery The Apiary

CHAPTER III. Rick Yard

The Barns

The GraDary .

The Chaff House .

Root Stores

Root-washing House

Boiling House . .

Fuel House

The Dung House

Manure House

Liquid-manure Tanks

Table showing the Quantity of Excavation,

required to stein the Tank, and Content

Foot in depth The Dairy The Churning Room The Scalding Room The Cheese Room Wool Room Shepherd's Store Engine House

Smith's and Carpenter's Shop Implement House Cart Lodge Drainage Drinking Ponds Farmer's Residence the Number of Bricks in Gallons for every

CONTENTS.

Kilns

PAGE 109

CHAPTER IV. Small Farms

Sparred Floors for Cattle Sheds

113 117 121 121

Chapter V. . •

Bricks

.

Burned Ballast

.

Timber

.

. 129

Lime and Cement

.

Cement

.

. 131

Thatched Roofs

.

Hollow Bricks

Chapter VI. . 135

The Excavator

...

The Bricklayer

Pan Tilings

.

Plain Tiling

....

The Mason .

.

Carpenter

.

The Plumber .

.

Zinc

....

. 146

Glazier

....

The Smith

.

The Sawyer

.

The Millwright

.

. 147

Introduction

THE critical position in which the Agriculturists of this country are now placed, with prices so low as to yield them no return for their year of labour, is surely a time when it is especially necessary to give the most attentive consideration to any matter that may tend to preserve to the landlord the present value of his property, and to the tenant farmer his position in life, and the capital he has embarked in agricultural operations. Although the farmers have been in many cases most unjustly condemned by their political opponents for the manner in which they carry on their business, yet there is one point upon which they are particularly open to censure, and that is, the generally miserable state of the premises and buildings that form their steading.

That they are nearly always antiquated and unfit for the purpose, is a fact that no farmer will deny ; and the object the author has in this little book, is to supply him with such necessary data that their reconstruction may be upon the most approved principles. The author having had considerable experience in the erection of agricultural buildings and machinery, and having visited most parts of England, and much of the Continent, with a view to make himself thoroughly acquainted with all that is new and good upon the subject, will endeavour to place before the reader, in the most concise form, the result of his own experience and investigations.

The re- erection of farm buildings is a most important point to be settled between landlord and tenant. For tbe latter bas a right to demand tbat be shall be furnished with proper offices suitable for his business, aud so arranged that tbe cost of bis labour sball be reduced to tbe lowest possible point, his stock be preserved in the highest state of health and comfort, and no one particle of his property be wasted or lost, which must be the case if he is without means to preserve the quality and bulk of the whole of his solid and liquid manure.

Until this is done on every farm in England the agriculturists must be considered as in the rear of their rivals, the manufacturers, who economize everything, and leave no stone unturned to discover anything that may facilitate their operations ; aud scarcely a day passes but something is improved and rendered more perfect. Now tbis is not the case with the agriculturist ; he does know how to improve a thing, and yet does not do it, but leaves it for years in the same inefficient state, and even allows it to wear out, and then reconstructs it in the same manner.

To instance this, are not nine-tenths of the farm steadings in England without gutters to the eaves of their buildings I And does not water from these buildings wash out half the value of the manure? (And I have just seen a set of farm buildings re-erected in Norfolk, where there is a most excellently constructed brick drain made to carry off the liquid manure into the adjoining brook !) Now no farmer could be found who would not condemn this state of things, as being bad ; and in no instance is the want of buildings and proper arrangements more conspicuous than in the extraordinary want of care in the preservation of manure always observable in old steadings.

Notwithstanding all farmers know well the value of manure, and that upon the quantity and quality of it depend the amount and value of crop they will get, they never take the smallest precaution to preserve the quality, and seldom the quantity. It is usual to turn the dung out from the stables and byres into heaps in a yard, which yard always slopes in some direction in which there is a drain, or open outlet, with a constant stream running through, — in wet weather, a full, dark-coloured miniature torrent ; and in dry, a sluggish little stream, thick, dark, and brown. This for some reason is generally turned into the horsepond ; hence the particularly unwholesome look of the drinking places about old farmeries, appearing as if the farmer was anxious to return a part of his liquid manure into the stomachs of the animals from which it came.

Now, if a farmer, upon receiving the value of his crop at a distant market, found on reaching home that he had been distributing along the way a considerable portion of the coins he had received, through a small hole which he had inadvertently suffered to exist in his pocket, he would be pretty sure, after this discovery, to have this hole immediately mended, to prevent the recurrence of a similar loss. The manure of the farm is the farmer's money ; for upon his economy in, and judicious management of this, depend the quantity and value of his crops : and it makes very little difference whether you abstract the means of producing a crop, or the value of a crop when produced.

" For you do take my life, When you do take the means whereby I live." — Shakspeare.

That an entirely new, simple, and scientific steading is necessary to most farms, cannot for a moment be doubted. The last fifty years have so entirely changed the system of agriculture in this country, that the crazy and ill-contrived buildings of existing steadings do not afford nearly sufficient accommodation for the farmer to carry on his operations, with the despatch and severe economy now positively necessary. Apparently, want of room would be the last fault to find with the old steadings, for they appear much larger than the new ones ; but this arises from the enormous amount of barn room formerly thought necessary, for besides these huge barns, and a small, ill-ventilated, dark, and therefore always very dirty stable, with an equally wretched cowshed, there is, in reality, no accommodation whatever. Hence we see the agricultural implements, carts, waggons, &c , lying about unprotected from the weather, in whatever place they were last used. The pigs are in the cow byre, the cows are in the piggery, and the whole place knee-deep in water. It will not be an isolated case when you find a farm in this state — it is the rule rather than the exception. All homesteads of the old school partake of it more or less ; and that they should remain so is the more remarkable, from the fact that, in other departments of agricultural science, the greatest improvements have been made of late years ; for, in every county in England, we find that most extensive and scientific drainages have been, or are being executed. The unwholesome fens and swamps of Cambridge and Lincolnshire have been rendered salubrious aud fertile, and the formerly barren sands of Norfolk now produce the richest crops. The great chalk plain of "Wiltshire, the name of which was associated with ideas of naked sterility, is now almost a garden. The very sea has been robbed of its bed, the corn grows where the waves broke ; and to assist this work, the manure has been fetched from the antipodes.

I must not be understood to say that there are no scientific and efficient farm steadings in England ; on the contrary, examples of such are to be found in almost every county : all I intend to assert is, that they are the exception, and not the rule, while in Scotland the reverse is the case — the good being there the rule, and the bad the exception. Indeed, to denv the existence of good steadings in England, would be doing a great injustice to those enlightened noblemen and gentlemen who have spent so much of their time and money in carrving out the most elaborate systems of farm steadings, and who have called to their aid the most scientific and experienced men of the day, at an outlay from which they can never expect such returns as those who are wise enough to act upon their results, without having to pay such a price as they did for their acquisition.

It is a curious circumstance that farmers should have availed themselves so little of the examples before their eyes, and, what is still more remarkable, I have generally found them averse to these model steadings. This I know to be the case, as I have at all times and opportunities consulted farmers of intelligence and character for success in agricultural pursuits upon this point, with a view to discover their grounds of objection ; and the first of these, as may naturally be expected, is the enormous outlay which has generally taken place in erecting them, and in this they are perfectly right ; too much money has invariably been spent, consequent, I think, upon the following causes : — First, that the model steading has generally been built upon very small farms, to which it bore no proportion, for I do not think that a perfect steading, constructed upon the most approved principles, and having all the advantages of fixed machinery and steam power, can be applied (to pay) to a lesser farm than one of 100 or 500 acres under the plough ; for it happens that the most costly part of the steading would be equally required on a farm of 200 acres — lengthening the stables and cattle sheds would adapt the same steading for 500 acres, inasmuch as machinery must be of certain dimensions to be effective and economical. As to threshing and store barns, I believe they will be made of one size, both on large and small farms ; that is, they will be made to contain about one day's work of the machine, and not, as formerly, to house the whole produce of the farm.

Another reason why the farmer does not appreciate model steadings, is his ignorance of the extraordinary saving effected by having the machinery fixed and of superior construction — at least one-third of the power usually consumed is lost in friction and in the want of proper fitting-up in the working parts. Although advocating a superior description of agricultural machinery and offices, we must not fall into the error which has generally been committed of drawing an ordinary but very unjust parallel between the farmer, employing machinery for facilitating the operations of agriculture, and the manufacturer, who uses the same for the production of the staple manufactures ; and it is a common thing for those who make the comparison to complain of the farmer's want of appreciation of good machinery and buildings, because he does not choose to go to the same expense in constructing his premises, and procuring the same high finish in his machinery and working gear as the manufacturer does. For this he has a sufficient reason, for it must be borne in mind that a manufacturer, in constructing his premises, calculates that these premises, and the machinery contained in them, will be constantly occupied and in use, — therefore, in the construction of, say his spinning machine, no expense is spared to get the most beautiful and perfect machine, (the spindle, with its warve and flier, is not less carefully made and highly finished for its purpose, than is the escapement of a watch) ; and the manufacturer acts wisely in doing so, for this implement is employed from sunrise to sunset, for days, weeks, months, and years, in pulling down and twisting the miles of tiny thread, every inch of which is producing to the manufacturer a minute profit. But the farmer is totally differently situated with regard to his machinery, for he only employs his different machines at particular seasons of the year, and then only for a short time. The machine is then laid aside till the recurrence of the season again brings it into use.

Now it is quite evident that a farmer would not be justified in going to the same expense in the construction and fitting up of his machinery, as the manufacturer does ; the farmer's being only a producing machine for say one-third of the year, and he not being so dependent upon time as the manufacturer, for when his crop is prepared he has no further use for his machine till next harvest ; whereas every moment of speed gained, and atom of work done additionally, by the manufacturer, is so much increased profit in the year — that portion of his work being finished so much quicker, and the next consequently begun so much sooner. It is in this latter point that he differs so much from the farmer, who, as above stated, however quickly he finishes his portion of work, cannot begin the next similar one until the following year. This is a point that has been very much lost sight of in the construction of what are called model, or example, farms, and hence we see so many attempts injudiciously made to apply the architecture and machinery of the factory to agricultural purposes.

Although it is no part of the object of this book to enter into any discussion respecting the political controversy that now agitates the agricultural world, yet, as the terms high and low farming are constantly occurring, a few words may not be out of place to define the sense in which they are used in this work ; for it unfortunately happens that farmers are apt to associate high farming with the practice of those gentlemen, who, having pockets which overflow with wealth derived from other sources, erect the most costly places imaginable, and carry on their agricultural operations regardless of the great question whether it will pay or not, having only one end in view, which is to carry out their designs in the most perfect manner; and practical farmers, having their living to get, know well that if they adopted such practices, they would never get a living. Hence what is called high farming is, from this cause, looked at by the farmers with considerable caution. Real high farming consists in developing to the utmost the capabilities of the land, by employing on it as much capital as will effect that purpose ; in economizing and preserving every atom of manure ; in reducing all expenses of labour, &c, to a minimum, and in increasing the produce, and consequently the profit, to a maximum. This high farming is that which every farmer will soon have to adopt ; that is, he must occupy only as much land as he can cultivate thoroughly ■well, and if his holding be large and his capital small, he must either increase the latter or diminish the former ; for it is quite certain, independent of the question of free trade or protection, that if high farming will not pay, low farming cannot.

Supposing a farmer has a quantum of manure, not more than sufficient for one field, it would be a most injudicious proceeding on his part to spread that quantity over two, as he ■would therefore be paying double the amount of rent, taxes, tithe, &c, of another man who confined his operations to only one field.

Now are not at least two-thirds of the farmers in England following precisely this injudicious line of conduct, by occupying a great deal more land than they make manure for ? In other words, farming very low, and losing sight of this important fact, that there are certain constant outgoings common to both a large and small crop grown on the same number of acres. The farmer therefore who doubles his crops, without increasing his ground, in effect halves those constant expenses, and therefore, by farming high, secures to himself a peculiar source of profit, not available to the low farmer. Admitting that this principle is true, and that if we are to farm at all we must farm high, both from necessity and principle, we are again brought back to the original subject of farm buildings, which it is the object of this work to describe and discuss.