Barns and Outbuildings: And How to Build Them

by Byron David Halsted

Time-honored designs for erecting any farm structure from dairy barn to smokehouse. Includes 250 historical and practical illustrations.

Genres: Nonfiction

235 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Byron David Halsted (1852–1918) was an American botanist and plant pathologist.[1]

Halsted was born at Venice, New York. He studied at Michigan State University and at Harvard (D.Sc., 1879).

In 1885, he began teaching botany at Iowa State and in 1889, he moved on to Rutgers in New Jersey.

In addition to his writings on biology and agriculture, Halsted was known for his book, Barn Plans and Outbuildings (New York: Orange Judd Co., 1894).

Halsted was an uncle of plant explorer David Fairchild who studied with him in Iowa and New Jersey.

Reviews

[Benjamin Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers great insight into basic principles of living off of the land, with loads of advice for practicality. What I find most interesting is the explained designs of storage methods and preservation of meats, roots, dairy, and grains through icehouses, smokehouses, silos, cellars, and pits. I had no idea that a well-built ice-house could keep ice well through the summer, without electricity. Though detailed plans are not included, explanations are fairly thorough, and there are many diagrams and floor plans in the illustrations, to give handy men direction on building. The book has a few errors regarding illustration references, but nothing necessarily detrimental.