84: DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



"These are of various forms. Fig. 25 gives the common 

 box rack in the most general use in the North. It is ten feet 

 long, two and a half wide, the lower boards a foot wide, the 

 upper ones about ten inches, the two about nine inches apart, 



Fig. 25. 



Box BACK. 



and the corner posts three by three, or three and a half by two 

 and a half inches. The boards are spiked on these posts by 

 large flat-headed nails wrought for the purpose, and the lower 

 edges of the upper boards and the upper edges of the lower 

 ones are rounded so they shall not wear the wool off from the 

 sheep's necks. The lower boards and the opening for the 

 heads should be two or three inches narrower for lambs. If 

 made of light wood, as they should be, a man standing in the 

 inside and middle of one of these racks, can easily carry it 

 about an important desideratum. Unless over-fed, sheep 

 waste very little hay in them." 



An improvement upon the common box rack has holes eight 

 inches wide, nine inches high, and about eighteen inches apart, 

 instead of the continuous opening represented in the foregoing 

 cut ; but it is a little more expensive. 



3. Feeding. "In Germany great stress is laid on variety 

 in the winter fodder, and elaborate systems of feeding are 

 given. Variations of dry fodder are well enough, but hundreds 

 and thousands of Northern flocks receive nothing but ordinary 

 hay, consisting mainly of timothy (Phleum pratense), some red 

 and white clover (Trifolium pratense et repens), and frequently 

 a sprinkling of June or spear-grass (Poa pratensis), during the 

 entire whiter. Others receive an occasional fodder of corn- 

 stalks and straw, and some farmers give a daily feed of grain 



