MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 197 



this is all right, but there are instances where a costly sheep barn 

 has been the forerunner of disaster. The novice should give his 

 attention first to the quality of his sheep and to the barn after. It 

 is poor policy to build costly sheep barns when cheap ones will 

 answer the same practical purpose and leave their owners with 

 more capital with which to swing their business. Costly buildings 

 have cornered a good many sheepmen and forced them out of busi- 

 ness. Almost any kind of a barn, providing it is waterproof, roomy, 

 well drained and weir ventilated, will answer the purpose of a 

 sheep barn. A very serviceable barn is that on the Edgewood farm 

 of Dr. H. B. Arbuckle, the well-known Dorset breeder, the main 



SHEPHERQ gOY 



A New York State Sheep Barn Shepherd's Hut in Foreground. 



features of which are described by the doctor himself in the "Ameri- 

 can Sheep Breeder" as follows : 



"1. Ventilation without draughts. 2. Sunshine. 3. Con- 

 veniences for the feeding of lambs. 4. Arrangements for separat- 

 ing the ewes into small lots, so they can be fed differently. 5. 

 Convenient feeding racks. 6. Arrangements for storing grain and 

 other feed. 7. A root cellar. 



"This barn possesses all these features. The size of the barn 

 is determined on the principle that every ewe must have at least 

 eighteen square feet- of actual space, exclusive of pens, passages, 

 racks. This supposes that there will be at least one lamb for each 

 ewe in such a flock. I am sure that this will be found necessary. 

 This barn, then, must be sixty feet long by thirty feet wide to allow 

 for the special form of racks, the pens, the granary and the sixty 



