Garden.
*®
VOL. LX1V
INDIANAPOLIS JAN,   16, 1C09.
NO. 3
Barn Ventilation.
Ml tors  Indiana  Farmer:
The accompanying cut partially illustrates an effective, simple and economical
system of stable ventilation.
The object of mechanical ventilation is
to provide an abundance of pure air, and
to aerry away foul air. To do this, cir-
i iiation must be established, and this
circulation, to be effective, should be
automatic, or self-acting, so that weather
conditions, air currents, etc., will not interfere with the proper supply of fresh
oir at all times.
By this arrangement the fresli air supply is taken in through ducts, as indicated, and discharged at the proper point
tor breathing .it once, before it has become foul or poison.
As fast as the air is breathed it heroines foul, poison and cold and settles to
the floor, where the foul air duct, or stack,
carries it up and away, performing this
service on account of its construction and
location.
By means of automatic valves or
dampers in the ducts the supply and discharge of air is easily controlled under all
conditions.
Any scheme of ventilation to be fully
successful must be planned and installed
?ccording to the conditions under which it
it> to work, as a system operating
satisfactorily in one barn, might be
worthless in another.
Therefore it is not so much in any system as it is in the manner of construction
and installation with reference to plan,
rud arrangement of building.
In so many of the new-fangled theories
of ventilation of stables, the fresh air is
taken in at a point near the heels, or at
least in the rear of the stock, where it is
allowed to settle to the floor, pass over the
foul matter there, and after passing the
bieathing point, is allowed to escape, all
of which is absolutely contrary to accepted principles of sanitary science.
An improvement over such a scheme
would be to have no mechanical ventilation at all.
A part of the fresh air ducts here
shown is obtained by simply closing up
spaces between the mow joist, by which
as many ducts can be provided as are re-
■ luired, and at such point as plan de-
"anils. The foul air stacks are out of
the way of storing hay and manipulating
hay forks,    etc. ,
V desirable feature of this idea of ventilation is the fact that it will work equally well in either rectangular, octagon, or
circular styled buildings.
To give the best service the materials
of vent stacks and a part of the fresh air
ducts should be made of metal, preferably
►.alvanized iron.
The number and capacity of ducts and
stacks would depend on conditions. The
vent stacks should be located alternate
with the air ducts, so as not to create
indue currents over the stock. Always
l*ar in mind that ventilation is of little
lalue without plenty of light, and especially sunshine.
Benton Steele, Architect.
Pendleton, Ind.
Favors Our Plan.
sVBtors Indlsns  Farmer:
Your editorial on Good Roads and the
Auto, in Farmer of December 2ti, is on I
'hat has done the subject justice nnd the
Bureau extends to you its sincere thanks.
I now wish to explain some of the propo
sitions and problems the Bureau has
brought out—or rather worked out—by
I.ersonal investigation; that these may be
made more simple and better understood
by the readers of your excellent paper,
the Secretary wishes to address them as
a  regular correspondent  ,or individual.
In the first place I must call your attention to one expression in your editorial
that might be misleading to many of your
readers; I refer to that part that states
that as this movement was started by people in the city,    it is a movement of "the
ed on the highway, if you please, and
this is the cause of the dissatisfaction
among the taxpayers,—not taxpayers of
the city, not the automobile manufacturer, or agency, or owner but the farmer, the man who pays 60 per cent of all
taxes collected in the state; the man who
is willing to pay $5 for a pair of shoes,
or $25 for a suit of clothes, and who gives
the merchant—if they prove to be not
worth the money. The man who knows
he has paid exorbitant sums for the
building of    roads and    they have    now
Cross Section of Stable Showing Ventilation.
automobile people, manufacturers, and
owners, rather than the team driving
farmers." I am in no way connected
with any manufactory or agency; as for
c wning oue—if they were selling at five
dollars per dozen I might buy one toot of
the horn and three whiffs of the smell,
and would have, of course, thrown in a
large chunk of the profanity which is the
chief  ingredient  to  their  movement.
I was for seventeen years in the gas
and oil fields of Indiana and Ohio, and
anyone who has ever been in that business can tell youthat there is noother business in the world that brings one iu such
close contact with the road proposition;
the jolts, the mud, the dust; the good, bad
and indifferent: tlie passable semi-passable and prohibitory. It was these
actual experiences that started my investigations on the road question I made the
discovery that the taxpayers are paying
into the county treasury ample sums for
road purposes. Yet they have not got
the roads to show for it; many of the taxpayers, farmers, have also investigated
with the same result; then the investigation begins for the reasons.
The first thought, of course, is "graft"
which is so fashionable in our county offices throughout the state; but it was very
soon shown that "all of the money for
load purposes had lieen put on the
roads." This was the report all farmers gave me who had made the investigation. This then is the text to the discontent of the present road system. "The
money for road purposes has been put on
the roads."      The money has been dump-
proven to be worth one-half the money
they cost; this is the man who first asked
nie to take an active interest and make
further investigations for the cause and
the remedy; this same fanner is the man
who has stood by me and given me aid
and encouragement for more than three
years, in making these investigations, and
the man who will furnish whatever remuneration I shall receive for my service.
Now to the proof of my statement that
onr improved roads represent only one-
half the money they have cost; from the
Office of Public Roads, U. S. Department
of Agriculture, in an article on investigation and results, the writer makes this
statement. "It costs as much to deliver
a bushel of grain five miles to the railroad
in Illinois as it costs to carry it 1,100 to
Buffalo. In West Virginia in the tobacco region, it costs five times as much to
deliver that product eight miles over mud
roads as it costs to carry it over 400 miles
to Richmond, Va." For Indiana we have
estimates and tables prepared from careful tests, which in brief are as follows:
Its 2.") cents to 30 cents per ton, per
mile, to haul n load over our common
earth roads: 17 cents to 20 cents per ton.
per mile, over our very best gravel roads,
as compared to hauling the same load
over a good macadam road at a cost of 8
cents to 10 cents per ton per mile. Do
we really have men so dense that they are
willing to strangle this proposition, and
(ontinue to pay an exorbitant road tax.
and yet continue the dirt roads?
As to keeping up and repairing of the
roads, this is a very important and costly
matter that is receiving but little attention, compared with what it really means
to the taxpayers. This. Marion county,
with 9 townships, pays $45,000 per year
for keeping in repair the public highways,
outside of incorporations. Other states
have proven the great economy of having
one man in each civil township, on a
straight salary—usually $100 per month
— to devote their entire time to this work.
By this plan then, with the cost of material, let us say $10,000 per year, making the annual cost of repairs $20,800 or
a saving to this county of S24.2O0. This
may be too high an average from which
to figure for the entire State, but it will
certainly prove the fact that "one man
working on roads 365 days in the year
will keep the roads in far better repair
than will 365 men working one day in
the year."
I am very much in favor of your plan
of a double track; this has been a point
I have always argued in favor of. The
most of our public roadways, from fence
to fence, have ample space for a double
track, yet we continue to construct a
narrow flimsy track, dump the gravel
on top of the ridge which in a couple of
years is worn out nnd must be resurfaced.
Ves, the double track for real economy,
comfort and convenience. I have seen
this illustrated by the horses in the city
that pass and repass the automobiles on
the streets and pay no more attention to
them than to the lamp posts; these same
horses meeting an auto on one of onr
country roads ou their narrow grades,
where they seem to realize that both are
pretty likely to get dumped into the ditch,
do some stunts that would put the staid
and stately equine from the farm to
shame And well he may, for with so many
of our narrow sharp graded roads,
whether it be an automobile, horsemobile,
or oxmobile, you better move over and
hold tight or
"The goblins    'ill git    you,    if    you
don't watch out."
The double track plan has been worked in Ohio with perfect results. I have
'1 from the township clerk of one township that in less than a year they will
have a macadam track on every road in
their township, which have cost them he
says, approximately $1,700 per mile, on
which the annual cost of repairs is but a
trifle compared to the cost of the fruitless endeavor to repair the roads before
the improvement. Yes, by all means,
a double track; the first cost is no more,
the repairing but an item of the cost of
repairs on a single track.
In conclusion, I wish in behalf of the
Bureau, to thank you again for the
space and comments you have given us
and I trust many of your readers will
write their suggestions to us, for we are,
by no means, a one-sided proposition.
J. C. Crabill,
See.  Indiana  Bureau for Good Roads.
60  BUSHELS  FOR   60 YEARS.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
In reply as to the eighty acre piece of
land being farmed and producing 60 bus.
of corn for 60 years or more. The land*
is sandy loam. There is timber on the
on the west and south sides of it The
timber is black ash, water elm &c. The
land lies ery low; yet doesn't overflow;
water rises near top of ground, and is
moist, yet not too wet to cultivate; don't
freeze deep in winter. This land is just
100 miles due north of Indianapolis, and
is owned hy James M. Meredith, who is
farming it. H. H.