BARMOTE COURT (from berg, hill, and mote, meeting), a name given to local courts held in the lead-mining portions of Derbyshire, England. Their purpose is the defitution of the ancient rights of the inhabit ants and the settlement of disputes connected therewith. They are of ancient origin, but their scope has been much restricted dunng the Vic tonan period. Consult Bainbridge, (The Law of Mines and Minerals' (5th ed., 1900).
BARN (Saxon, berern, from bere, barley, and ern, a close place or repository). The word seems originally to have denoted a build ing for the stonng of grain. In modern times it has a wider significance—all structures of any capacity used on a farm for storing crops and sheltering stock being known as barns. In the changeable climate of the United States, with its severe winters, protection to cattle becomes an important item in the operations of husbandry, and as our agriculture becomes more highly developed we construct more.ex pensive, convenient and useful barns. A well built barn, embracing all the conveniences needed for the easy and safe storing of crops and the comfort and well-being of farm stock, will always be one of the safest and best in vestments a farmer can make. At one time the barns on many estates were capacious enough to contain all the grain raised on them, but recently the practice of stacicing grain has gained ground and it is now considered the better plan— building the grain barn of suffi cient size to contain one or two ricks of grain at a time and all the necessary appurtenances for threshing. The stacked grain is kept in better condition from having a freer circulation of air and being so disposed as to be free from the attacks of vermin. A regular yard is set apart for stacks, elevated platforms are pro vided on which the statics are built and they are so arranged as to prevent vermin from climbing to them from the ground and so far separated as to leave each stack isolated. Many such conveniences are known to the American farmer. The skeleton barn, a build ing but partially enclosed, spaces being left between the boards for the free ingress of air, with a durable roof and projecting eaves, is most used for grain and for the storing of hay loosely trussed for market. The sheep and stock barns on the continent of Europe are generally of an inferior character and usually serve also as a residence for the fam ily of the servant or foreman of the farm. The sheep and stock barns of the United States are generally commodious structures with wide sheds on each side, in which the animals find shelter and receive their provender, or, when built on a side hill, the cellar is appropriated to this purpose. Sheds also surround the whole yard in many instances, while stacks of the poorer quality of hay and threshed straw occupy the centre of the yard, their contents being freely used as bedding and partial food for cattle, the greater bulk finding tts way into the manure heap. These are both comfortable quarters for the animals and profitable for the farmer. Modifications of this general plan are made by each farmer according to his means and peculiar ideas. As a general rule,
stock barns are found most profitable when they afford the most ample accommodations. The greater the comfort of his animals, the more uniform the profit of the farmer. Great care-should be used in the selection of a place for the farm buildings. The barns should be easily reached and so arranged as to admit of the economical disposition of both crops and manures. The soil should be dry and porous or should be thoroughly drained. Ample pro vision should be made for the saving of ma nures. Side-hill barns afford cellars in which these may be kept without waste, their bulk augmented and those changes produced upon them which are so essential to their highest efficiency. If no good springs, streams or wells can be obtained, cisterns for rain water should be provided. Barns are usually built of wood, some of stone, a few of brick and of concrete or gravel wall. The gravel wall can be made cheaper than stone walls and can be built on farms affording only gravel and small stones of a quality too poor to build ordinary stone walls. Barn floors are usually of wood; and when intended for the threshing or handling of grain should be tight and smooth and kept clean. Oalc, beech and yellow pine form ex cellent floors. The threshing floors described by Columella were formed by wetting the earth with the lees of oil, mixing in some chaff and ramming the whole down firmly; chaff was then trodden on the top, and the whole left to dry in the sun. The lees of oil were said to check vegetation, and to drive away vermin. The preparation of corrugated iron, at a comparatively cheap rate of cost, suggests that material as one of the best for a well-built barn. The roof deserves more attention than it usually receives at the hands of the farmer who wishes to be truly economi cal in his expenditure for buildings. Finally, let all farmers remember that ventilation is one of the most important things to be secured, especially in stocic barns. The plan and con struction of a barn varies with the purposes for which it is used. For detailed plans and internal fixtures for both stock and general barns consult Curtis, (Farm Buildings for Land Owners, Agents, and Tenants' (London 1912) ; Dolve, (Barn Plans,' North Dakota Experiment Station Bulletin 97 (Agricultural College, N. D., 1912) ; Hill, (Practical Sugges tions for Farrn Buildings,' United States De partment of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletins 126, 190 and 461 (Washington 1901, 1904 and 1912) ; McConnel, (Farm Equipment: Build ings and Machinery) (New York 1910) ; Rad ford, (Practical Barn Plans and All Kinds of Farm Buildings' (ib. 1911); id., (Practical Country Buildings' (Wausau, Wis., 1912) ; Fraser, (Economy of the Round Dairy Barn,' Illinois Experiment Station Bulletin 143 (Ur bana 1910); Ocock, (The ICing System of Ventilation,' Wisconsin Station Bulletin 250 (Madison 1908) ; Shaw and Jeffery, 'College Farm Buildings,> Michigan Experiment Station Bulletin 250 (East Lansing 1907) ; 'Farm Buildings' (Chicago 1907) • Winder, 'Hand book of Farm Buildings) (London 1908).