[ti:Round Barns on US Farms ] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Agriculture Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:02.65]Agriculture Report. [00:05.92]American farmers traditionally [00:08.53]keep their animals and equipment [00:11.36]in barns that are rectangular. [00:14.50]But there are hundreds of barns [00:16.76]in the Midwest and other parts [00:19.10]of the country that are different. [00:21.70]They are not longer than [00:23.50]they are wide. [00:24.65]Or wider than they are long. [00:26.86]These buildings are round. [00:29.78]Round barns have a long history [00:32.92]in America. George Washington, [00:35.07]the nation's first president, [00:37.30]had a round barn [00:38.98]in the seventeen hundreds. [00:41.11]The Shaker religious community [00:44.08]at Hancock, Massachusetts, [00:46.25]built one in the eighteen twenties. [00:49.01]But the idea did not become [00:51.39]popular until years later. [00:54.54]Then, in the early nineteen hundreds, [00:57.68]the University of Illinois [00:59.88]at Urbana-Champaign built [01:02.18]three round barns that [01:04.58]many farmers copied. [01:06.62]A farmer could save on wood [01:09.25]or stone with a round design [01:12.09]that needed less material [01:14.60]than traditional barns. [01:16.59]Experts also believed that [01:19.37]farmers could save footsteps, [01:21.81]and time, in feeding [01:24.16]their animals in a round barn. [01:27.40]And round barns stood [01:29.75]a better chance against strong winds. [01:33.21]Some round barns [01:35.45]are not truly circular. [01:37.86]They just look that way, [01:39.47]but really are many flat pieces [01:42.30]put together side by side. [01:44.99]Early versions were mainly [01:47.79]designed with two levels. [01:50.03]Cows were kept on the first floor [01:52.77]and the one above [01:54.51]was used to store hay. [01:57.39]Later designs brought a large area [02:00.63]in the middle for the hay [02:02.77]and feeding stations [02:04.77]all around for the cows. [02:07.21]By the nineteen thirties, [02:09.52]however, fewer American farmers [02:12.00]were building round barns. [02:14.54]Some people said it took [02:16.88]more time and skill. [02:18.92]Others disagreed. In any case, [02:22.41]it was not a good time to argue [02:24.98]-- it was the Great Depression, [02:27.30]and times were difficult. [02:29.21]Also, as electric power [02:32.30]came to rural America, [02:34.47]there was a school of thought [02:36.66]that rectangular barns were easier [02:39.60]to wire for electricity. [02:42.03]Agricultural experts also [02:44.61]reconsidered their ideas [02:47.06]about a round barn [02:49.25]saving time in feeding animals. [02:52.90]Kathy and Bob Frydenlund [02:55.24]own the Round Barn Llama Farm [02:58.58]in New Richmond, Wisconsin. [03:01.21]The Frydenlunds have a library [03:03.95]of architectural plans [03:05.89]and drawings and have [03:08.39]published books on the subject. [03:10.70]Money from their book sales [03:13.29]helps them take care of their own barn [03:16.78]-- a big one nearly a century old, [03:21.13]made of concrete and wood. [03:23.37]Bob Frydenlund says having [03:26.12]a round barn means keeping alive [03:29.01] part of the history of American farming. [03:32.84]And that's the VOA Special English [03:36.79]Agriculture Report, [03:38.73]written by Jerilyn Watson. [03:41.54]Transcripts and podcasts are [03:44.27]at 51voa.com, [03:47.82]and captioned videos [03:50.02]are on YouTube [03:51.86]at VOA Learning English. [03:55.44]I'm Steve Ember.