216 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



ducing disease in the foot, but deter the animals 

 from drinking as often as inclination prompts. 



Protection against the inclemencies of the season 

 is the third consideration in the " feeding and man- 

 agement of sheep in winter." It is almost as ne- 

 cessary to their health and prosperity as food itself, 

 and for this reason, comfortable shelters should be 

 built for them : they not only do much better, but it 

 is a great saving of time, fodder, and manure. It 

 will be found that ten tons of hay, fed to sheep that 

 have warm shelter, will go farther than twelve tons 

 fed out to them from a stack, and when they have 

 no other protection from the inclemencies of the 

 weather than the side of the stack or a fence. Such 

 stables, if properly constructed, will pay at least 

 from 15 to 25 per cent, interest annually. This 

 alone should prompt the owner of a flock to provide 

 comfortable lodging places for them. " A merciful 

 man is merciful to his beast." 



Each full-grown sheep requires six square feet of 

 room, including racks. The stable should be eight 

 feet high, with windows in the upper part, that may 

 be closed as circumstances require. The floor over- 

 head ought to be made tight, that nothing may fall 

 through. The animals must be well littered, as it 

 will add much to their health and comfort. Where 

 this is neglected, the dung accumulates and creates 

 an offensive smell, and the sheep are then very loath 

 to enter their stables. It is but too often the case, 

 that when farmers do shelter their sheep, the stables 

 contain a mass of dung so offensive that the flock 

 will not enter them, and, if forced in and confined 

 .there, it proves highly injurious : hence the preju- 

 dice " that housing sheep is injurious to their health." 



