50 



THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



necessary to have a store of food and a feeding place, it may be 

 well to consider first the subjects of shelters or barns, feed racks, 

 and facilities for watering. 



The first requisites for the comfort of sheep in their winter 

 lodging are a dry clean floor, a tight roof, and abundant ventila- 

 tion. The site of a sheep-house should therefore be well drained, 

 and of such a character that it can be kept clean and free from 

 filth. It should, if possible, be on high ground which slopes each 

 way from it, but at any rate it should slope to the south or south- 

 east. The house should be well roofed and provided with rain 

 troughs and spouts to carry the water away from the yard into 

 either a covered drain or a cistern. It should be open at the front, 

 protected only by a projecting roof, and the walls, if of boards, 

 need not be battened over the joints, as the air which will enter 



Fig. 13. SHEEP BABN. 



through these cracks will be no more than will be needed to keep 

 that within fresh and pure. Some more carefully protected shelter 

 must be provided for the use of yeaning ewes and young lambs, 

 in a part of the house or in another building, but until the appear- 

 ance of the lambs is looked for, this warmer shelter will not be 

 needed. The loft over the lower apartment will be used for stor- 

 ing hay or other fodder, and space for this purpose may be econ- 

 omized by having the upper floor only so far above the ground 

 floor as will allow the shepherd a comfortable passage beneath it. 

 A building which is well arranged and convenient is shown in 

 figures 18, 19, 20, and 21. The following description with the 

 illustrations are taken from the American Agriculturist. It con- 

 sists of a barn, shown at fig. 18, about 20 feet wide, 16 feet high 



