A cupola, if it is large and well proportioned, may add beauty to the barn and serve to ventilate the mows, thereby making them cooler for the workmen than they otherwise would be. It may also give opportunity for lighting the mows and the floors, thereby avoiding the necessity of windows at the side of the mows, where they are likely to be broken and where they are covered as soon as the barn is partly filled.
Hay and grain contain 20 to 25 per cent of moisture when stored, and hence tend to become warm. The hot, moist air, due to this heating, ascends to the roof or cupola and forms an easier passage to the earth for electrical discharges than the normal air of the building does. Thunder storms prevail largely about the time barns are filled, hence they should be provided with good lightning rods, that an easier and safer way may be provided for the discharges than by the ascending warm, moist air of the building. (See lightning rods, [Chap. XX].)
Barns not more than sixty feet wide may be covered by self-supporting roofs. The curb or gambrel form is the best. If the gables are clipped, the cost will not be materially increased, while the structure will be much improved in looks. Barns should have strong, wide, projecting roofs; a few extra rows of shingles at the eaves will serve to protect the outside covering and the framework, and will improve the looks of the structure. Should it be decided to paint the barn, an ample projection will greatly reduce the expense of keeping the paint presentable. Financially speaking, it does not pay to paint the barn unless the boarding is placed horizontally. The boarding of many unpainted barns is still in a good state of preservation, although they were built more than three-fourths of a century ago, and had roofs projecting but a few inches over sides and ends. Protected by a roof projection of one to two feet, rough, vertical barn boards may last for one to two hundred years without paint. It may be said, then, that properly constructed barns are painted to improve their looks and not to preserve them. When the barns are well removed from the house and virtually hidden by trees, they may be left unpainted, but where they are conspicuous they should be painted, that the barn may not mar the beauty of the home. The oxide of iron, which usually has a red or reddish tinge, mixed with pure oil, forms a most desirable and satisfactory barn paint. (See Painting the House, [Chap. IX].)
CHAPTER XVIII
REMODELING OLD BARNS
It is more difficult to remodel old barns than to build new ones. If the attempt be made to unite several of the detached buildings with the view of making them into one symmetrical structure, much study will be required. The frames of the old buildings are so strong and durable that they should not be thrown aside as useless until it is certain that to utilize them would be more expensive than to tear them down and erect others of new material. Those massive oak sills and posts and poplar swing-beams have for me a meaning and charm which is lacking in the light plank and balloon frame constructed of knotty, wind-shaken hemlock or some other cheap wood. It needs no argument to prove that the numerous detached rural buildings so often seen on the farm should be remodeled; but how? To illustrate, let the buildings shown in [Fig. 114], which is from a photograph, be taken. Move the four largest buildings to some suitable site without taking the frames down, and out of the timbers of the other structures build a basement story. It will take just one-half as much material to board the new structure as the four old ones, plus that required to fill the gaps where the old structures do not join (see plan, [Fig. 115]). These openings, eight and twelve feet, are all so short that the frames may be made continuous by means of light pieces of material, which will serve for nailing girts. When the old buildings have been united, some of the inside posts may be in inconvenient positions. If so, trusses appropriately placed in the mow story will permit the removal of the obstructing post, as shown in [Figs. 116] and [117].
Fig. 114. The scattered buildings on a farm. The profit of the farm is absorbed in doing the chores.
If a steep curb roof, which may be self-supporting ([Fig. 118]), be adopted, the remodeled structure ([Fig. 119]) will have more than three times the available space that the four old structures had. It is probable that there would be nearly enough dimension stuff in the seven other small structures to construct the basement story.
Fig. 115. Plan for condensing the buildings shown in [Fig. 114].