Monday-So What!

Re: Monday-So What!

So Bo and Luke Duke could drive right through the barn like the wind and escape from Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrain.

Re: Monday-So What!

Ventilation- Barns tend to get smelly and damp and hay stored in it will rot if not kept dry. Just a WAG from an old country boy from the big city.

Hint: Both are correct but

not percisely what I was after. Barns did store hay and they did need circulation of air to dry but these barns also had a floor of packed dirt or tight boards for a reason linked to the opposing doors.

Re: Hint: Both are correct but

Ever try to back a horse drawn wagon out of a barn? Much less challenging to drive straight through when the hay was unloaged.

Re: Hint: Both are correct but

Somebody keeps moving the keys on my keyboard. That's unloaded not unloaged.

Re: Hint: Both are correct but

Ever try to backup a hay wagon pulled by horses? Much less challenging to drive through when the wagon is unloaded.

Like pushing a lawnmower with a rope......

Re: Monday-Answer

Long day. Ventilation was at least part of the answer. However, the barns I was thinking of were most of the style of Pennsylvania bank barns so while there were two doors opposite another it was not possible to drive a team in one door and out the other. Both doors were above grade and only one had a ramp. (Think of the Pennsylvania Dutch barn in the movie Witness.) These were not at all like the modern day west coast fire stations where the trucks are housed in what amounts to an enclosed drive through. The barns I was thinking about were also called winnowing barns. After the hay was cradled it was allowed to dry for a day or two in the field. It was then gathered and taken to the barn where later it was threshed with flails. The flail separated the stalks and the grain. The stalks were forked loose into storage or bundled for animal feed. The solid floors prevented the grain from falling through to the lower level. The remainder of the threshing left the grain and chaff. The cross ventilation through the doors allowed the age old method of launching the grain into the air where the grain fell to the floor and the chaff was floated out the door. Later flywheel and then combine driven belted fans blew across the dropping grain and did some of this work but not all could afford a fanning mill so winnowing was done the old fashion way at least into the 1900�s. When the grain was taken to the mill for grinding the grain was winnowed again and many a grain operator made a few extra bucks by having the water powered fans blow some grain as well as chaff away from the pre-grinding buckets. This loose grain was winnowed a second time at a slower speed at the end of the day. A handsome profit could be had over time.

Re: Well I'll be danged

I grew up in North Central Ohio where every farm had a barn like that at one time, most are gone now. I don't recall ever hearing that explanation for the design, but Google supports you. My family oral history only goes back as far as threshing machines which were used outdoors.