Excavate a foundation trench to a depth below the frost line, twenty inches wide. Fill with concrete mixed 1: 2½: 5. On this foundation erect the forms for the side walls, spaced in such a way as to make the wall 12 inches thick. These forms are made of 1-inch siding, with 2 by 4-inch studs, spaced 18 inches apart. Fasten the forms securely at top and bottom as described in forms for “[Small Farm Buildings],” page 82. While erecting the forms, place in position frames for the window and door openings. These frames are removed after the concrete has become hard and the windows and doors placed. If the concrete extends above the windows, place three ½-inch iron rods 3 inches above each opening, and extending 18 inches beyond its sides. Insert bent iron rods in the concrete around the corners, at intervals of every 2 feet of height. Having carried the wall to the desired height, provide for attaching the wooden superstructure to it by placing iron bolts every 5 feet in the concrete while it is yet soft. These should be placed with the head down, allowing the nut end to extend above the wall a sufficient distance to pass through the sill and to afford length for a nut and washer.
If a concrete ceiling is to be placed over the stable, erect forms in the same way as for a cistern cover described on [page 69]. This ceiling will have to be carefully reinforced, and if there is any doubt about the quantity and position of this reinforcing, a competent engineer should be consulted.
Entire barns of concrete are being built in ever increasing numbers. If so built, the fire danger for that barn is forever removed. A barn of concrete, however, with a wooden roof is not perfectly fireproof. If the hay catches fire in such a barn, the roof is burned up.
Any one who has the ingenuity to build an entire barn of concrete can build a concrete roof as well.
Wind Walls and Their Importance
To be healthy, stock need exercise—in winter as well as summer. But few farms are provided with an exercise lot sufficiently well protected against winter blasts to provide a safe exercising place.
The exercise lot should be located on the warm side of the buildings. Erect the wind wall on the side from which the winter storms most often come. Probably the most convenient way to build the wall will be in sections of 10 feet in length. The wall will be 3 inches thick at top, 12 inches thick at the base, 7 feet above and 3 below ground, with the slope side toward exercise lot.