| Materials Required | ||
|---|---|---|
| Screened gravel or crushed rock | 17 cubic yards at $1.10 | $18.70 |
| Sand | 8½ cubic yards at $1.00 | 8.50 |
| Portland cement | 30 barrels at $2.50 | 75.00 |
| $102.20 | ||
The Value of Manure Pits
Rotten manure not only enriches the ground, but also increases the water-holding capacity of the soil. One load of well rotted manure from a concrete pit is worth two loads of manure as ordinarily stored.
Concrete Barnyards
The advantages of concrete feeding floors so appealed to the farmers who first built them that they enlarged the floors until their entire barnyards were surfaced with concrete.
It is no uncommon sight in the spring and winter to see an earthen barn lot so deep with mud that animals go thirsty rather than attempt a trip to the water trough.
The effect is bad on all kinds of livestock, especially on fattening animals and dairy cattle. “Feeders” must have an abundance of water to fatten quickly. Insufficient water cuts down the quantity of milk given by dairy cows. Lack of enough exercise further decreases the yield. An occasional trip through this mud to the trough, so cakes the cows’ udders with dirt that the milker wastes valuable time in washing them—and they must be washed, if one would have clean, wholesome milk. Continual tracking through the mud not only makes more currying, but often produces that irritation on horses’ legs known as “scratches.” Suddenly frozen, such an earthen lot is so rough that it is impassable. Moreover, the old barnyard—with its surface worked up year after year—becomes a storage place, which carries over the disease germs from one season to another. The “droppings” are entirely lost, and, mixed with the earth, tend to make the lot muddier the following year. To keep up the fertility of the soil, all the manure produced on a farm should be saved and returned to the fields.
Concrete Floors Increase Profits
A concrete barnyard makes a fine exercise lot in all kinds of weather and always affords a dry spot for the animal’s bed. Every shower washes the surface clean and flushes the droppings into the manure pits. Concrete yards lighten the work of the housewife, as there is no mud to be tracked on the walks and kitchen floor. The use of rubber boots is unnecessary. On concrete floors not a particle of grain need be wasted. The way to the water trough is always dry, smooth and passable. Concrete floors promote and protect the health of farm animals and increase the profits of farming, stock raising and dairying.