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.

Construction

The construction of concrete barnyards is exactly like that of Feeding Floors, page 43, except that the work is on a larger scale. Often the entire lot is not paved in one season, but from year to year as the farmer has time. In excavating for the drainage foundation (see Sidewalks, page 29), be careful to remove all manure and straw which may be tramped into the ground and which may be so solid as to resemble earth. In time any kind of manure decays, shrinks, causes the floor to settle and forms water and ice pockets on its surface. Dig the trench for the foundation apron as for Feeding Floors—there is no material so rat-proof as concrete.

With the drainage foundation ready, set the forms in the manner described for Sidewalks. Even if the whole lot is not to be paved at one time, plan the grading for the entire barnyard so that the completed pavement may have perfect surface drainage. Build and cure the pavement and make provision for saving the manure the same as for concrete Feeding Floors. Do not be too particular about giving the surface a smooth finish—a rougher finish affords the animals a better footing. The cost per square foot is no more than that of feeding floors—the investment yields a greater profit.