Note 36 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 3)

The barns36 had a peculiar kind of construction hereabouts, which I will give a concise description of. The whole building was very great, so as almost to equal a small church; the roof was pretty high, covered with wooden shingles, declining on both sides, but not steep: the walls which support it, were not much higher than a full grown man; but on the other hand the breadth of the building was the more considerable: in the middle was the threshing floor, and above it, or in the loft or garret they put the corn which was not yet threshed, the straw, or any thing else, according to the season: on one side were stables for the horses, and on the other for the cows. And the small cattle had likewise their particular stables or styes; on both ends of the buildings were great gates, so that one could come in with a cart and horses through one of them, and go out at the other: here was therefore under one roof the threshing floor, the barn, the stables, the hay loft, the coach house, &c. This kind of buildings is chiefly made use of by the Dutch and Germans; for it is to be observed that the country between Trenton and New York, is inhabited by few Englishmen, but instead of them by Germans or Dutch,37 the latter of which especially are numerous.