1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



481 



from the lands of his careless or thriftless neighbor 

 may, after five days' notice, enter upon any land 

 ■whore the weed is found growin";, cut it, and re- 

 cover full costs for the labor and trouble." 



For the A>ic England Farmer. 



PLAN OF A SHEEP BARN AND FEEDING 

 RACKS. 



Mr. Editor : — I send herewith the description 

 of Mr. R. W. Toby's sheep barn, which I prom- 

 ised you sometime since. I find it somewhat dif- 

 ficult to give an intelligible description of it, but 

 if you and your readers are willing to use a good- 

 ly quantity of Job's especial virtue, I think I can, 

 "after a time," make the thing plain. 



The barn, or more properly, perhaps, stable, is 

 a building 50 feet by 10 ; the west end joining the 

 barn from which the sheep are foddered. The 

 posts are 14 feet in length, the first seven feet be- 

 ing used as a shed for cattle, with the excc])tion 

 of 12 feet of the east end, which contains a hen- 

 roost, &'C. 



Over these is the stable, occupying the whole 

 extent of the building. The floor is of inch boards 

 lined with half-inch. On each side are four win- 

 dows, for the double purpose of admitting light 

 and for ventilation. Through the middle is a 

 space 4 feet in width, extending from the west end 

 to within about 3 feet of the east eiid ; in this 

 space the sheep are fed. On either side of this is 

 a row of stalls of the same length, and outside of 

 these, between the back ends of the stalls and the 

 sides of the building, on each side, a space 2 feet 

 10 inches in width. The east end of the middle, 

 or feeding space, being boarded up, it leaves an 

 alley nearly 3 feet wide, on both sides and across 

 the east end, which the sheep have entirely to 

 themselves. 



Inclosed is a rough sketch which may aid some- 

 what in giving a correct idea of the stalls ; and as 

 it is in these that the ^'peculiar peculiarity'' of 

 the stable lies, I take the liberty to send it, hoping 

 that you may see fit to use it in connection with 



this. The floor under the stalls has a slight slant, 

 being raised an inch and a half at the front by 

 means of wedges sawed ofl" the proper shape and 

 laid upon the sleepers. 



The stalls are 3 feet 2 inches long, and 16 inch- 

 es, clear, in width. The uprights, a a a, are of 

 inch spruce, 2 feet 8 inches long and 2 inches 

 wide ; on each side of these the strips which form 

 the sides of the stalls are nailed. These strips are 



of half-inch bass-wood, the side next the sheep 

 being planed ; the bottom ones are 4 inches wide 

 and are ])laced 10 incliesfrom the floor ; the others 

 are 3 inches wide, leaving the two uj^per spaces 6 

 inches each. 



In front is an elm board, C, 16 inches wide, and 

 above this a spruce board G inches wide, the space 

 between being G inches. 



Across the tops of the front uprights is a strip 

 3 inches wide nailed firmly to each one. Across 

 the Ixick ends of the stalls is a piece of 2 by 3 

 scantling let on the tops of the uprights about an 

 inch, for the purpose of strengthening this part of 

 the work. In the board C, in front of each stall, is 

 a notch 6^ inches wide and 9 inch deep ; the board 

 is so wide that a sheep cannot eat from the floor 

 without placing his neck in this notch, and you 

 will see at once that while it is here he cannot ma- 

 terially interfere with his neighbor's business. 

 The six-inch space between the two front boards is 

 for the accommodation of horned sheep ; a sheep, 

 while his head is at about its natural height, can 

 readily pass it through this, horns and all. 



Sliding upon the back uprights and held in its 

 place by cleats, is a board some 4 inches wide, so 

 arranged that it may fall to within about 13 inches 

 of the floor, or be raised to the top of the stand- 

 ards, by means of a cord passing over the scantling 

 above it, to the front of the stalls ; these boards 

 are 12 feet in length, so each one closes eight stalls. 

 The sheep are not usually confined to the staUs 

 except while feeding grain, then it becomes neces- 

 sary, or at least very convenient, to have them so. 

 Every farmer knows that if he has a sheep that is 

 a little weakly in the fall, (and every large flock 

 will have such,) it will, from the very fact of its 

 weakness, keep continually growing weaker, un- 

 less he separates it from the larger and stronger 

 sheep. Now this arrangement must, I think, al- 

 most entirely obviate difliculties of this nature ; 

 one sheep has just as good a chance as another, 

 for there is no such thing as crowding a weaker 

 one from his place at the rack. And if you have 

 a sheep that is not doing quite as well as you 

 would like, you have every facility for increasing 

 his feed. 



At the time this stable was built, it was intend- 

 ed more particularly for fatting sheep ; but Mr. 

 Toby tells me that from what experience he has 

 had with it, he has not the least doubt but that 

 store sheep would do enough better with the same 

 amount of feed, saying nothing about the increased 

 ease of management, to make the thing pay with 

 any farmer having fifty or more to winter. 



It is an old, but I think now nearly exploded 

 notion, that sheep do not require water. But any 

 one still skeptical on this point would have all his 

 doubts removed by watcliing Mr. Toby's ilock a 

 short time, and be obliged to acknowledge that, so 

 far, at least, as a love of water is concerned, sheep 

 are not constituted materially different from other 

 animals. They have free access to water, and 

 scarcely five minutes passes while they are eating, 

 but that one or more will come down, take a few 

 swallows, and run back to their feed. 



Well, says my economical friend, this is all very 

 nice if a man only has the "wlierewith," but it is 

 altogether too much like English farming to be of 

 any practical use to us poor farmers. 



But wait a moment ; an excellent old maxim tells 

 us to "look before we leap," so we will examine 



