280 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



these upper doors lie had better not hang them at 

 all, but leave the space open instead. The cold and 

 snow that will blow in will do less injury to the 

 fattening lambs than the deprivation of air would do. 



The barn should have no floor save the natural 

 earth. Water troughs of concrete are best and they 

 may be built so as to be half within and half outside 

 of the barn, on the sunny side. These tanks may 

 be of large size, thus obviating the necessity of stor- 

 age tanks, say 10x12 feet and about 18 inches deep. 

 It is of no use to make a lamb's drinking trough 

 very deep, and in fact there is danger that they may 

 drown in a deep tank, since they will sometimes 

 jump into it. 



The amount of room desirable in a feeding barn 

 is about 5 square feet to a lamb aside from the 

 racks. In practice one will need about 8 square 

 feet gross, which will give him room for his racks. 

 To feed, then, a carload or 350 lambs, he needs a 

 barn about 36x72 feet. Some feeders crowd the 

 lambs more than that but they will not thrive as 

 they ought nor ripen evenly unless all have room 

 so that they may eat at the same time. 



The next thing is the feed rack. Various types 

 are in use and all have some good qualities. After 

 much experience with various types the writer finds 

 this form best (see illustration). It is made of two 

 Ix6-inch boards spaced 24 inches apart, with ends 

 and a bottom of matched^pine flooring. This makes 

 a shallow box or feed trough. At the corners are 

 legs of 2x2-inch stuff, 40 inches high. The vertical 



