HOUSES FOE BREEDERS. 



53 



of pickets, if desired, in which case the U-shaped pieces 

 of stout hoop iron should be attached to the portions of 

 the frames corresponding to the top and bottom rails of 

 the picket fence. The wire netting fence stands better 

 than the picket fence, because it does not take so much 

 wind as the latter. 



Before describing the runways for the purpose of 

 exercise, which are attached to the yards, the latter 

 being so very small, the absolute necessity of plenty of 

 this exercise for the choice selected breeding stock will 

 be enlarged upon. Dr. Holmes, when asked the age at 

 which the education of a child should begin, answered : 

 "A thousand years before it is born." All breeding 

 animals must have exercise. Better breed strong stock 



FIG. 15. YARDS AND HOUSES FOR BREEDERS. 



in the first place than putter at doctoring sick fowls 

 afterwards. When breeding ewes are confined in close 

 quarters all winter, the lambs from them in the spring 

 are born as limpsy as a wet rag. Said a Vermont raiser 

 of high-class Merinos : " When I induce my ewes to go 

 a half mile or so to a stack for their hay, and in order to 

 get their grain make a journey back again, and repeat 

 this round trip over and over, every day all winter, their 

 lambs are born as solid and firm as a rock." Even the 

 domesticated hares or rabbits, which stand close confine- 

 ment better than any other animal, give much stronger 

 progeny if allowed room to exercise during the breeding 

 period and previously. Mr. Thomas Wright, the great 



