212 STELLS BAENS WITH OPEN SHEDS. 



This is covered with straw, reeds, sods, brush, clay, or 

 anything else which will prevent the wiad and rain from 

 driving through it. It is decidedly improved by raising the 

 lower ends of the poles two feet by means of a log, stone-wall, 

 or a bank of earth or sods. 



Clumps op Tkees ajtd Stells. — If one generation would 

 be persuaded to make arrangements for another generation, 

 good sheep shelters could be cheaply formed, and on the most 

 comprehensive scale, by planting clumps or belts of woodland, 

 for that purpose, on the vast timberless plains of the South- 

 west. Evergreen trees would be far preferable, if they could 

 be obtained, and would flourish in the situations where they 

 are required. With stone walls or hedges on the west and 

 north, even a small clump of such trees would form a far 

 better steU than many of those which are used on the bleak 

 and storm-swept highlands of Scotland, — which consist of 

 walls alone. Larger clumps would answer without the walls ; 

 but they should be sufficient to protect sheep from the fury of 

 the wind, which renders cold vastly less endurable by them 

 — particularly when it follows a rain which has penetrated to 

 their skins. For this object, and indeed for all objects, naked 

 BteUs composed merely of high stone walls, board fences, or 

 double Unes of poles with straw, sods or earth filled in 

 between them, are far better than no protection. 



Hat Baens with Open Sheds.-^ In aU the States lying 

 south of 40 deg., open sheds are sufficient winter protection 

 for Merino sheep, and probably so for the English mutton 

 varieties, — though perhaps the high-bred !N"ew Leicester would, 

 in many situations, find more protection profitable at some 

 periods of the year. 



Hay barns and sheep sheds like those on the following 

 page, or of some analagous construction, were much in vogue 

 in the Northern and Eastern States, a few years since. 



But there were many difficulties about them, in the 

 climates of those States. Snow often blew under the sheds 

 when the wind was in front; and in severe gales, even when 

 the wind was in their rear, it drifted over from behind — 

 piling up large banks immediately in front, which gradually 

 encroached on the sheltered space, and filled its bottom with 

 water whenever there was a thaw. 



If a cold storm, or a very freezing temperature occurred 

 at lambing time, these open sheds did not sufficiently exclude 



