POINTS IN MANAGEMENT. 99 



and as breeding-stock, destined for the regeneration of 

 the flocks of the country, especially so. There is also an 

 economy in the practice. They, however, should not have 

 an opportunity of ranging over too great an extent of 

 ground. 



IV. 



With a knowledge of thermal and atmospheric in- 

 fluences, we can rightly estimate the immense importance 

 of a judicious arrangement and ventilation of the build- 

 ings, or ' galpones,' where sheep are housed. An ill-con- 

 trived ' galpon ' will suffice to mar the entire prospect, 

 and defeat every attempt of the breeder. Packed in a 

 close ' galpon,' the sheep soon consume the oxygen, and 

 fill the place with the carbonic acid gas which they 

 exhale — a vapour fatal to health and, in quantity, to life. 

 Add to this (should the ' galpon ' not be kept clean) the 

 sulphurated hydrogen, and other foul vapours, which are 

 generated ; then, suppose these sheep, after passing a night 

 in this heated and foul atmosphere, turned out to en- 

 counter the chill of a winter's morning, and we need no 

 fuller catalogue of fatal evils. Under such circumstances, 

 the benefits of the best of blood are lost ; the circulation 

 of the blood is sluggish, its oxidation is imperfect, and 

 the process of formation (the vital action) is feeble, the 

 flesh flabby, and the wool deficient in texture, elasticity, 

 and quantity. Skin, lung, and bronchial diseases, become 

 chronic ; and the progeny of such sheep is contaminated 

 and will infallibly degenerate, and be afilicted with the 

 chronic state of sarna, noticeable in many flocks. 



The construction of sheds, or ' galpones,' should be 

 regulated according to the number of sheep to be housed. 

 For a flock of from one, two, to three hundred and 



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