|
In our experience, not all barns are red. Maybe the majority, but definitely not all. To test that our contention, we visited Yahoo!'s Barns category (under Architecture > Buildings and Structures). A few quick clicks and we were browsing through The Barn Journal, an online publication "dedicated to the appreciation and preservation of traditional farm architecture." A tour of their "Featured Barns" pretty much clinched the fact that many barns are indeed other colors, most notably white and gray (perhaps unpainted, weathered beams). Then, checking out the site's "Farm Stories" section, we stumbled upon "Why are Barns Red?" Charles Leik, editor of the Journal, presents a number of hypotheses in his essay, but nothing completely definitive. He suspects that the regional popularity of red barns in the Northeast comes from the fact that "Ferrous oxide (rust), a primary component of red paint, is inexpensive and this appealed to the thrifty farmers of New England and New York State." Leik goes on to discuss other regional and decorative trends, such as white barns associated with the rise of commercial dairies and variously colored barns used for purebred livestock and horses. For more ideas on the question, you could check out the Barn Journal's lively guestbook / discussion forum. Next time, you might just ask a simpler
question like "Why are school buses yellow?" or "Why is the sky blue?" And now you know.
|
