wisest thing, which we think a majority of farmers are doing, and that is to follow regularly the turning under of a clover turf, as soon as possible, with a crop of wheat. With a yield of two tons of clover hay per acre, valued at eight dollars per ton, when compared with other fertilizing elements, the same fed out to stock upon the farm will bring at least that amount, if consumed economically, and leave three-fourths of its manurial value, if properly husbanded, to be replaced upon the soil again. Also the second crop for seed, or turned under the following spring, will add immensely to the fertility of our soils with the humus to renovate and make it friable and porous ready to let the air into the roots, hold more water and lessen labor. While it does appear that we grow wheat at a substantial loss at fifty cents per bushel, there are other factors which greatly lessen that loss when taken into our crop rotations.

Farmers substantially say, by their continuing to seed the usual acreage to wheat, that success in farm operations depends upon rotating with winter wheat, and other crops along with farm stock must make np any deficit that a crop of wheat may inflict.

In conclusion, let us summarize on three acres with soil and conditions alike for a three-years' rotation.

Aside from this profit for these three acres in one year, or one acre in three years, there is an increase of fertility through the nitrogen taken from the air which is truly net gain, and a resource of fertility occasioned by disintegration brought about by labor and skill, charged against the crops, along with fertility pumped up from the subsoil by clover roots of which no real estimate can be given in dollars and cents.

The thinking, practical farmer understands these silent agents working beneath the green covered soil when kept unexposed to the climatic changes of a north temperate tone, and while it seems impossible to figure out a net profit from visible, tangible things that grow out of the soil he has found that through some silent in fluence he manages to live in peace and await the time when the business prosperity of our nation shall no longer demand fifty-cent wheat at his hands. Wheat is the natural product of the Ohio farms which we, as farmers, will continue to grow because we cannot farm without the straw it produces.

A GENERAL PURPOSE BARN.

By JOHN L. SHAWVER, Bellefontaine, Ohio.

Every prudent farmer desires a barn sufficiently large to provide shelter for all his stock. If he be a specialist he wants a barn fitted especially for the kind of stock he handles, but if he be engaged in mixed farming he will want a general purpose barn-one that will accommodate a few horses, a number of cows and a flock of sheep. Of course he wants things so arranged as to be convenient and enable him to care for this stock with the least possible amount of labor.

Having given this subject considerable investigation, and having made it an object to visit many of the best barns in this and adjoining states, I believe the ac

companying plan will be found to possess as many advantages as can usually be found combined in one plan. It represents a barn thirty-six feet wide and sixty-four feet long. There are three large box stalls, “A,” which will accommodate six horses. These are connected by doors, "B," and are lighted by windows, “C." The mangers, "D," are built directly above the sill and diverge towards both stables and feed room. The manger thus built occupies less room and suits the requirements of both animal and owner. The feeding alley, "E." is between horse stable and cow stable, so that both may be fed in a very few moments' time and with very few steps. The small boxes at "F" are feed boxes filled from large bins above the driveway, by means of spouts. The bulk of the feed is thus out of the way, while the small boxes which never get empty are convenient of access.

There are eight cow stalls, in addition to the box stall at "G," which will be found very convenient in more ways than one. "I" represents the manure gutter and "J" the walk, three feet wide. The gutter should be sufficiently deep to prevent the cows stepping into it and never so wide but that both cows and attendants may easily step across. "K" and "K" are sheep stables separated by the feed racks at "L," which are portable. “M” and “M” are large doors through which the manure spreader or wagon may be driven when the stables are to be cleaned out. Grain boxes are provided about the sides, so constructed as to prevent the. sheep standing in them.

"P" is a covered barnyard, forty feet wide and of any desired length. This communicates with the cow and sheep stables as well as with the horse stables. Here the manure is accumulated and saved from loss through exposure to rain, air and sunshine. The loft above receives the straw directly from the threshing machine, which being kept perfectly dry and bright is doubly valuable. From this loft the straw feeds down into the racks at "Q" or is pushed through the chutes at "O" “O” “O” “O” into the various stables for bedding. "R" "R" "R" are racks for feeding corn stover or hay. "N" is the watering tank, accessible to both sheep stables and the covered barnyard.

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Such a barn may be built very cheap by constructing the frame of plank. This system not only saves from one-third to one-half of the timber, but saves from seven-tenths to nine-tenths of the cost of framing the barn. Each of these items is well worth consideration and when, in addition, one gets a stronger, more durable and more convenient barn, the value becomes more greatly enhanced.

The truss work for supporting the roof not only provides great strength, but it avoids any timbers which would interfere with the use of the horse fork or hay and grain slings. It also provides for a clear floor space over the entire floor of the superstructure.

These frames may be built with a curb or gambrel roof, if so desired, by giving the roof supports sufficient pitch, permitting the purlin posts to extend past them, intersecting with the stays at any desired point to give half, three-fifths or twothirds pitch for the lower span and any desired pitch for the upper span.

The basements may also be constructed of plank, but they have not yet been sufficiently tested to warrant me in recommending them for general use, though I believe they are as strong as when made of square timber.

NEGLECTING OUR OPPORTUNITIES.

. By O. J. VINE, Canton, Ohio.

On every hand we hear the complaint, "Farming don't pay." Do those who are so ready to complain ever stop to consider that perhaps farming is unprofitable

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because of their own neglect and carelessness? Very few farmers apply good business principles to their vocation; they go on, year after year, in the same old rut, with scarcely a thought as to how they might improve their methods, and by so doing, produce better crops at a smaller cost. This is really the solution of the problem, how to make the farm pay better.

If prices are low, we must reduce the cost of production in the same proportion. One difficulty with many farmers is, they do not read and think as they should. They forget that this is an age of progress; they sneer at new methods, agricultural papers and farmers' institutes as "book farming,” and imagine they know more than any one else. They say money spent for books and papers is wasted, yet they will permit enough to be wasted on their farms every year, by ignorance and mismanagement, to purchase a good library. Farming certainly requires the exercise of all our business qualifications, knowledge and judgment, if we expect to make it profitable.

One of the most serious mistakes is in the management of the manure. My observation leads me to say that not one farmer in a hundred in Ohio, takes the proper pains to save the amount of manure he could or should. I am certain that with a little extra care and effort, the amount of manure made each year, might be doubled, and in many cases quadrupled, and be improved in quality. If, instead of feeding stock in the open fields during the winter, the farmer would stable them carefully and bed them liberally in order to absorb all the liquid manure the most valuable part as it contains the most nitrogen-he would be surprised to find how much more manure could be made in a year. The manure heap is the farmer's deposit bank; if his "account" is large, and he makes judicious use of it, he can expect to grow large crops. By proper effort, the farmer can produce enough home-made fertilizer, and need not depend upon commercial fertilizer, to maintain fertility. The purchase of commercial fertilizer involves a direct outlay of money, which the farmer can ill afford to sustain. On some soils commercial fertilizers do very well, on others they do but little good. Barnyard manure is always reliable, it never fails to show good effects. Like all fertilizers, it does the most good in wet seasons, when there is an abundance of moisture to render it more soluble, as it is only in a liquid state that plants can utilize it. We need to be constantly on the alert to maintain the fertility already in the soil, and add to it, whenever possible. Fertility, drainage and tillage are the key-notes to successful farming, and if we do not perform our part, we ought not to complain if profits are small.

I advocate and practice stabling stock almost constantly during the winter, and half the time during the summer. The manure should be removed daily, and unless taken directly to the field, as is practiced by many good farmers, should be heaped up'in a small, compact heap, to prevent leaching. Instead of this, many allow it to be thrown promiscuously over a large yard; all the rain, and perhaps the water from the roof in addition, falls upon it, and leaches it, while the cattle tramp it into the mud. It loses from 10 to 50 per cent. by lying in the yard from six to ten months before being applied to the fields. This loss might easily have been avoided by a little care and judgment in the handling of it. The dark colored stream, that finds its way to the neighboring brook after each rain, shows the loss sustained.

The practice of feeding stock out of doors in winter cannot be too strongly condemned. Not only does it require more feed to support an animal in that way, but so much of it is wasted by being tramped under foot, that cattle will refuse to eat it. Feed is too expensive, even when low in price, to be wasted in that way, when by providing comfortable shelter it can be made to do so much good. The loss may seem small to each farmer, but in the aggregate it is enormous.

In many cases, much fodder is wasted by careless handling in the field. Hundreds of acres are left standing uncut in the field every year, the greater part of