VENTILATION. 



bio little paper Jour. R. A. S. vol. vi. p. 2-12,) 

 ' Having observed that sheep in wet weather 

 on our downs always select the most beaten 

 roads for their bed, it occurred to rne that not 

 only when under sheds should they lie on boards, 

 according to your own experiment, but also that 

 the courts to which they have daily access whilst 

 their houses are being cleaned should be co- 

 vered, not with soft litter, but with hard chalk 

 or sand, or other materials to form a solid bot- 

 tom. My little yards attached to the sheds are 

 floored with a sort of asphalte made of chalk 

 beaten small, covered with gas-tar and sand. In 

 constructing sheds for my sheep I have kept in 

 view the strictest economy ; and I venture to 

 send these minute details, which I hope will 

 serve to prove that the protection of sheep from 

 the inclemency of the weather is within the 

 reach of every tenant farmer. Each of these 

 sheds contains about 50 sheep. They are erected 

 on a very simple plan : a couple of fir poles, 12 

 feet long, are nailed together at the top; their 

 extremities, at a distance of 15 feet, are driven 

 into the ground; another couple, 10 feet distant, 

 are united with this, and held firm by a ridge- 

 pole nailed into and lying between the tops of 

 the fir poles. Side pieces are nailed parallel to 

 the ridge-pole, and small hazel-wood is interlaced 

 so as to support the thatch, which a labourer 

 ties on with tar-twine. The thatch in front and 

 behind reaches to about 3 feet from the ground; 

 behind, a bank of turf is raised to meet the 

 thatch; the front is guarded by a hurdle, move- 

 able at pleasure, to allow the sheep to go into 

 the court, which is ot the same size as the shed. 

 It is important that both ends of the shed should 

 be protected with bavins only, which will secure 

 a free ventilation, yet keep out rain. My sheds, 

 about 50 feet long (not charging the straw), cost 

 about 41*. each. 



"These sheds are floored with 1-inch boards, 

 separated (each strip from the other) by f inch 

 intervals. The cost of the timber and mode of 

 preparing the floor were as follows: White 

 pine timber was used for its cheapness, being 

 1*. 3d. the cube foot, which would therefore 

 give eleven 1-inch boards. On account of the 

 particular width of the logs which I bought, the 

 board was sawn into pieces 7 inches broad and 

 1 inch thick. These, for economy, are hand- 

 sawn into three parts, and are nailed upon joists 

 at a distance off inch. By this plan nearly one- 

 third of timber is saved ; so that each sheep, 

 requiring 9 feet of space, lies actually on 6 feet 

 of 1-inch board. The cost of timber for joists, 

 nails, and carpenters' work, raises the total ex- 

 pense of placing the sheep on boards to 1-5. 4rf. 

 per head. Instead of sleepers I used small 

 blocks, 6 inches thick, to keep the rafters from 

 direct contact with the manure. The boards 

 are put together into frames about 10 feet by 4, 

 so that they may easily be taken up by one man. 

 Beneath the boards the floor, excavated 8 or 9 

 inches, is puddled and made water-tight, and 

 govered with 6 inches of sawdust, burnt clay, or 

 good dry mould. This receives and absorbs the 

 manure which falls, or is swept below twice a 

 day. The boards, after sweeping, are watered 

 with a solution of 3 Ibs. of sulphate of iron (cop- 

 peras), which instantaneously removes the odour 

 not only of the ammonia, but of the more offen- 

 sive sulphuretted hydrogen. The boards should 

 be laid perfectly flat, to prevent the sheep slipping 

 about. The sheep are fed under the sheds, not j 



VENTILATION. 



I in the courts. The results of this arrangement 

 have been most successful, both in the health 

 and well-doing of the shee'p. 



" It is true that I have lost four head, which 

 seem to have died from apoplexy ; but I lost the 

 same number in the rlock which were at large, 

 and treated in the usual manner. Though I 

 have had more than 300 Southdowns so shedded, 

 some of them longer than five months, yet I 

 have never seen any instance of lameness, even 

 in the least degree. 



" Their food consists of turnips, for the last 

 fortnight only of swedes; half a pint per day 

 (never more) of oats or peas; with straw cut 

 into chaff, over which ground linseed has been 

 poured, mixed with boiling water. 



" I regret that I cannot send the important 

 statistics of weight and improvement under this 

 regimen. During one month the sheep were 

 weighed, and found to have increased about 3 

 Ibs. per week on an average ; that is, ten were 

 selected and weighed which seemed fairly to 

 represent the flock, and they had made this im- 

 provement. The illness of my bailiff stopped 

 these calculations; but the general issue will be 

 allowed to be satisfactory, as more than half 

 have been sold which in twelve weeks have 

 paid 13,*. a head. 



" Leaving out of the account both the injury 

 which in bad seasons my clay-lands would have 

 sustained by the treading of the sheep, and 

 the value of the rich manure saved under shelter 

 (its gases fixed by the sulphate of iron and gyp- 

 sum strewed daily over the boards), I consider 

 that the whole expense of boards and sheds wag 

 i in the first month." 



In the stall feeding of cattle, the application 

 of these just principles can hardly be too sys- 

 tematically regarded. Of this opinion, too, is 

 Mr. George Dobito, who, in his prize "Essay 

 on fattening Cattle," (Jour. R. A. S. vol. vi. p. 

 78), remarks, ' Cleanliness, warmth, and quiet, 

 are the great points I insist upon, of course cou- 

 pled with good feeding; but many tons of oil- 

 cake are annually wasted, because the comfort 

 of the animals is not more attended to." 



The subjects of air and food are so closely 

 allied as tp be viewed to most advantage toge- 

 ther. That vegetable substances contain animal 

 .matters ready formed, was a suspicion which 

 was entertained in a confused shape by more 

 than one of even the early Greek philosophers, 

 but it was reserved for the modern chemist to 

 prove the truth of the supposition. This has 

 been thus explained by Dr. Lyon Playfair (Jour. 

 R. A. S. vol. iv. p 216 : 



" All vegetable food has been found to contain 

 a peculiar substance, which, though it differs in 

 appearance and in form, according to the source 

 from whence it is obtained, is in reality the 

 same body. It has received the name of gluten 

 or albumen* and is precisely identical, in chemi- 

 cal composition, with the albumen obtained from 

 the white of an egg. This substance is invaria- 

 bly present in all nutritious food. Chemists 

 were surprised to discover that this body never 

 varies in composition; that it is exactly the 

 same in corn, beans, or from whatever plant it 

 is extracted. But their surprise was much in- 

 creased when they remarked that it is quite 

 identical with the flesh and blood of animals. It 

 consists, like the latter, of carbon, hydrogen, 

 nitrogen, and oxygen, and in the very same pro- 

 portion in 100 parts. By identity in composition 

 4 Y 2 1085 



