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On older style barns, the upper area was used to store hay and sometimes grain. This is called the mow. A large door at the top one of the ends of the barn opened up so hay could be put in the mow. The hay was hoisted into the barn by a system containing pulleys and a trolley that ran along a track attached to the top ridge of the barn.
An old expression for a person having poor aim when throwing an object or when shooting as something is 'he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.' This becomes amusing when the physics definition of a barn, a unit of exceedingly small area, is considered.