32 



Management of Sheep. 



and that those fed in the warmest sheds made but little progress 

 when exposed to the free temperature of the air ; thus proving 

 that all animals intended for the butcher should be sold from the 

 sheds. I have since adopted the middle course with rams that 

 were intended to be shown the following September, and have 

 provided a number of boarded trajs, for the purpose of supplying 

 them at all seasons of the year with open sheds. The heads of 

 these are made of oak, 6 feet long by 4 inches square, and hooped 

 on the top : the frame or tray is 9 feet long, and boarded with 

 feather-edged board 4 feet deep, leaving about 20 inches to be 

 placed in the ground. Four of these traysj two at the back and 

 one at each end, make an excellent open shed for 8 or 10 sheep 

 (according to their size) to run under. These trays are placed 

 open to the south during the winter, and, being portable, are 

 removed with the sheep to the clover or tares for the summer, 

 when they are reversed, to keep out the heat, but regularly littered 

 with clean straw or stubble ; this the sheep enjoy, and they are 

 induced by it to remain under cover during the heat of the day. 

 When placed upon clover, a constant supply of green tares, in 

 racksj during the heat of summer, is very desirable to cool the 

 system, or reduce the pressure of heat upon the animal body, that 

 the process of fattening may be carried on with greater success, 

 as on an even temperature of heat depends the composition of 

 animal food, and the consequent return for the vegetable food 

 consumed. 



Thus, after many anxious reflections upon the principle which 

 ^''science'' had dictated, practice" has shown it to be one of 

 great magnitude, and to develop the mysteries of past ages, by 

 pointing out those elements of the vegetable creation best adapted 

 to Nature's laws, under the varied temperature of the seasons. 

 Experiments serve to elucidate and confirm this ; but as the re- 

 sult of the experiments goes to show the average amount of animal 

 food produced from a given quantity of vegetable food under the 

 different degrees of " warmth," I am bound to add (and this is 

 truly important), that the different animals in many instances 

 varied considerably in their gain ; consequently, while the experi- 

 ments confirm that a proper degree of " warmth is an equivalent 

 to food," I found, by close observation, they also confirmed that 

 the form and sort of animal invariably governed the difference in 

 the production or composition of animal food referred to. 



Hence the importance of breeding and feeding robust, docile, 

 symmetrical animals, to produce the largest return for the quan- 

 tity and quality of food consumed. 



Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland. . 



