202 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



easy access to the sheep, and being so near the ground as to form an excellent shelter. It 

 is made of wood, is 9 feet in length, 4^ feet in hight, and 3 feet in width, having a sparred 

 rack with a double face below, which is covered with an angled roof of boards to throw off 

 the rain. The rack is supported on two triangular-shaped tressels b, shod with iron at the 

 points, which are pushed into the ground, and act as stays against the effects of the wind 

 from either side. The billet c, fixed on the under or acute edge of the rack, rests upon the 

 ground, and in common with the feet, supports it from bending down in the middle. The 



lid a is opened on hinges when the fodder is put into the rack Such a rack is easily 



moved about by two persons, and their position should be changed according to a change 

 of wind indicative of a storm.' 



I used racks formed of rounds (or " sparred ") for several years, and 

 found them decidedly objectionable. The sheep grasping a lock of hay in 

 its mouth, brings the head to its natural position, and then draws in the 

 adhering fibres in the process of mastication. But when eating from a 

 rack, it will not pick up the liay which it drops under foot. In the box or 

 hole racks (figs. 31 and 32) most sheep will not withdraw their heads 

 from the openings, as they can there hold them in the ordinary position 

 for mastication, and as, if they step back to do so, they are very liable to 

 be crowded out of their places. The hay, therefore, is not drawn out of 

 the rack, and if any is dropped, it falls within it and is saved. At a sparred 

 rack, the sheep will not keep its nose between the randies (in a horizon- 

 tal or upward position) until it detaches a mere mouthfull of hay. It will, 

 particularly when partly sated, twitch out its fodder prior to mastication, 

 and all which scatters off and drops to the ground, is trampled under foot 

 and wasted, except for the mere purpose of manure. A considerable loss 

 will always result from this cause. 



And there is another objection to this form of rack, particularly where 

 it runs down to an acute edge on the bottom, as in fig. 33. The sheep 

 frequently drawing the hay from the lower part, will shake down from 

 above hay-seeds and chaff into the wool on their head and necks ; and the 

 wind will sometimes carry these as far as their shoulders and even their 

 backs. As heretofore remarked, these cannot be washed out, and they 

 materially lower the market value of the wool. 



The following rack has been used and is highly approved by my friend 

 George Geddes, Esq., of Fairmount, N. Y., to whom I am indebted for 

 the drawing and description of the cut. It serves both for a rack anc 

 feeding-trough. 



Fig. 34. 



THE HOPPER-RACK. 



The above is intended to represent a section of what I think the best sheep-rack 



1 A piece of durable wood about 4 feet long, 6 or 8 inches deep, and 4 inches thick 

 two notches, a, a, cut into it, and two troughs, made of inch boards, b, b, b, b, placed ii 



