CLEANING OUT STABLES IN WINTER. 219 



dry ground; occupy an elevated, airy position, but one as 

 little exposed as possible to prevailing winter winds ; be of 

 easy access to water ; possess ample capacity for the number 

 of sheep to be kept in it ; and have means of thorough ventila- 

 tion in every state of the atmosphere. The hay floor above 

 the sheep stables should be matched or battened, so as 

 entirely to prevent dust, hay seeds, or chaff from sifting 

 through on the sheep. It should have pens in the sheep 

 stables to throw the hay in from above when feeding, so that 

 it cannot fall on the backs of the sheep or be run over by 

 them.* Every gate, door, fastening and fixture about it 

 should be strong and secure. 



CLEANING OUT STABLES IN WINTER. It is rather the 

 prevailing custom among Northern flock-masters not to clean 

 out their sheep stables in winter, but merely to cover the 

 manure occasionally with fresh litter. This is unquestionably 

 bad practice, in two particulars. It certainly prevents making 

 anything like the amount of manure which could be formed 

 by mixing the dung and urine of the sheep with an amount of 

 litter which would half fill the sheep stable, if suffered to accu- 

 mulate there throughout the winter. And there can be no 

 reasonable doubt that a deep bed of manure, which, except 

 during severely cold weather, is constantly heating, evolving 

 gases, and filling the apartment with a warm steam and the odor 

 of fermenting dung, and which, after a decided thaw of a few 

 days, positively produces an offensive stench, can not form a 

 very healthy lair for sheep. It is rather the prevailing opinion 

 now among the best flock-masters, that the increased practice 

 among Merino sheep of pulling their own and each other's 

 wool in the winter, is occasioned by an irritation of the skin 

 caused by lying on these beds of heating manure. Unstabled 

 flocks do not, so far as I have observed, thus become addicted 

 to " wool-biting." Stables should be cleaned out three times 

 during each -winter, say in the early part of January, the 

 latter part of February, and in April. And in the interme- 

 diate periods, it is an excellent practice always to strew the 

 manure on the floor with plaster (gypsum,) prior to covering 

 it with fresh straw. This absorbs the escaping gases, and 

 thus not only preserves the purity of the atmosphere, but 

 vastly enhances the value of the manure. 



* Some, instead of this, shut the sheep out of doors when filling the racks. But 

 the state of the weather, as, for instance, in a winter rain-storm, or the situation of 

 the sheep say when they are lambing sometimes renders this highly improper. 



