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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
This shed, like the others, is arranged for the accumulation of manure in the stalls ; the floor is therefore made impervious to moisture by a layer of clay; the mangers move at will, up and down; at the ridge of the roof are openings with valves for ventilation.
The ends of the building are covered with double boarding, filled out with moss; they are provided with sliding doors, and over them windows. It is thus possible, as in a sheep- pen, to drive through and load the dung directly into the wagons. The straw thatch must be at least twelve inches thick. This style of shed is as convenient as any other, and cost originally seventeen cents per square foot. Including the boarding afterwards added for greater warmth, the whole cost reached about twenty-three cents.
This, as well as the facility with which this building can be transported, renders it very valuable. A shed built in the same manner, with a clear width of only sixteen or seventeen feet internally, without supporting posts, and with a light roof, would be well adapted for laborers who have come from a distance to the grain, potato, and beet harvests, and cannot be elsewhere accommodated. I saved also a great deal in building expenses by extending the roofs of the sheds on both sides on the Eleanorenhof farm; in fact, on all four as far as their slope would allow. Thus I procured space cheaply for my sowers, machines, and the smaller farm-tools, as well as for the storage and preparation of artificial manure. The roofs thus extended were supported on posts ; the doors were made to slide, thus saving room and wear. On the Eleanorenhof farm the corn-sheds were made entirely of wood and partitioned off, whilst a portion of the cattle-sheds were left without partitions, for the laborers to sleep and eat in, and for the construction of tools. In this way the cattle could be constantly and easily cared for.
The greatest saving, however, in the expenses of building and keeping a costly inventory of stock, was made by the application of my principle of "No more dung-heaps, no more reservoirs or pumps for urine.” This I applied as early as the year 1844, in the common cattle-sheds then existing on various estates under my care. My own sheds were expressly built for the collection of the manure in the stalls,