232 



WATER FOE SHEEP IN WINTER. 



ewes) suffer if again forced to depend exclusively on eating 

 snow. Consequently, a regular supply of water throughout 

 the winter should he regarded as indispensable. It becomes 

 still more so, where sheep are housed and yarded. In winter 

 climates cold enough frequently to congeal water, the most 

 convenient arrangement, where it is practicable, is to bring 

 It directly into the sheep barn, by means of underground 

 pipes from a spring or dam of sufBcient elevation to force it 

 up into tubs. These should be placed in the middle 

 partitions, (as seen in the two plans of sheep barns in 

 the preceding Chapter,) so that each tub shall supply two 

 flocks of sheep. If different tubs are supplied from the same 

 spring, each must have a different pipe, or else the tubs must 

 be at different elevations, so that a waste pipe from the 

 higher one will go up into the bottom of and fill the lower 

 one. When the surplus water is finally discharged into the 

 ground, it should be by a waste-pipe emptying into a deep, 

 well-made drain, which will never become clogged- An 

 accumulation of ice in a sheep stable, or any overflow of 

 water into the bedding, would be a nuisance far more than 

 overbalancing all the conveniences of indoor watering. The 

 tubs should rise but a few inches above the floor, and should, 

 if they have much depth, have well secured but movable covers 

 to prevent sheep and lambs from falling into them — the covers 

 having holes cut through them barely large enough to enable 

 the sheep to drink.* 



Two plans for outdoor watering are given in the ground 

 plan at page 217. As I have already stated, I decidedly 

 prefer that which exhibits two wells and pump-houses (at^, 

 /",) because free egress from all the yards, independently of 

 each other, ciould thus be much more conveniently secured. 

 Each well or cistern should be fitted with a pump of a 

 construction which forces up water very rapidly, and which 

 does not admit of its being frozen in the body of the pump, 

 if some special precaution chances to be forgotten. Small 

 purtip houses, which can be shut tight arid provided with 

 projier conductors to the troughs, guard against numerous 

 uccidents to pumps, preyent ice acicumulating inconveniently 

 about them, and render it so coriiparatively comfortable to 

 Avater sheep in very cold and blustering weather, that there is 



* Ab the tnba are conatantly forced full of water the sheep need not even put its 

 head tbrongh theiOover to drink; and elliptical holes through It 4>^ by 5 orS^ inches, 

 for the mere insertion of the nose, are all that is required.. If the tub waters two 

 apartments it should have two holes on each side. j 



