233 SHEEP HUSHANDIlf IN THE SOUTH 



surrounded by fences to break the winds, would be found sufficient. In 

 sections infested with wolves, they might also be made to answer for folds, 

 by carrying the fence to the requisite hight, to bar the ingress of the wolf. 

 But farther north, and on the high lands and mountains, better shelters 

 would, I am inclined to think, in the end, be found more economical. 



The simplest and cheapest kind of shed is represented in the following 

 cut (fig. 44). It is formed by poles or rails, the upper ends resting on a 

 strong horizontal pole supported by crotched posts set in the ground. It 

 may be rendered rain-proof by pea-haulm, straw, or pine boughs. 



Fig. 44. 



SHED OF RAILS. 



In a region where lumber is very cheap, planks or boards (of sufficient 

 thickness not to spring downward and thus open the roof) battened with 

 slabs, may take the place of the poles and boughs ; and they would make 

 a tighter and more durable roof. If the lower ends of the boards or poles 

 are raised a couple of feet from the ground, by placing a log under them, 

 the shed will shelter more sheep. 



These movable sheds may be connected with hay-barns, " hay-barracks," 

 stacks, or they may surround an inclosed space with a stack in the middle 

 like fig. 43. In the latter case, however, the yard should be square, in- 

 stead of round, on account of the divergence in the lower ends of the 

 boards or poles, which the round form would render necessaiy. 



Sheds of this description are frequently made, in the North, between 

 two stacks. The end of the horizontal supporting pole is placed on the 

 stack-pens, when the stacks are built, a'nd the middle is propped by 

 crotched posts. The supporting-pole may rest, in the same way, on the 

 upper girts of two hay-barracks ; or two such sheds (at angles with each 

 other) might form wings to this structure. The " barrack," as it is pro 

 vincially termed in the North, would, it strikes me, afford a most econom- 

 ical and a most convenient way of storing fodder in the South. It is ea- 

 sily movable, so that it possesses the same advantage that stacks do, in 

 manuring different parts of the field or farm. On the other hand, the fod- 

 der cannot be drenched by a winter rain, as in a partly fed out stack 

 Hay can be more rapidly stored in it than on a stack at any time, and you 

 can pitch into it to the last moment, when threatened with rain, without 

 stopping to round up the top as is necessary in a stack. The outside i? 

 not weather-beaten and damaged, as is the case with the sides, and fre 

 quently with a considerable of the top of a stack. Fig. 45 (on the nex* 

 page) represents the form of a barrack. It is 12 feet square on the bot- 

 tom, and the frame is formed by girting together four strong poles, 16 feet 

 long, at the bottom, and 6 feet from the bottom. Boards 6 feet long are 

 nailed perpendicularly on the girts. Two-inch holes are bored at con- 

 venient distances through the corner poles, so that the roof, which rests 



