Shed Feeding of Sheep. 
243 
which is of the same size as the shed. It is important that both ends 
of the shed should be protected with bavins only, which will secuie a 
free ventilation, yet keep out rain. My sheds, about 50 feet long (not 
charging the straw), cost about 4 1*, each. 
These sheds are covered with 1-inch boards, separated (each strip 
from the other) by |-inch intervals. The cost of the timber and mode 
of preparing the floor were as follows: — White pine timber was used 
for its cheapness, being \s. 3d. the cube foot, which would therefore 
give eleven 1-inch boards. On account of the particular width of the 
logs which I bought, the board w as sawn into pieces 1 inches broad and 
1 inch thick. Tliese, for economy, are hand-sawn into three parts, and 
are nailed upon joints at a distance of |-inch. By this plan nearly one- 
third of timber is saved : so that each sheep, requiring 9 feet of space, 
lies actually on 6 feet of 1-inch board. The cost of timber for joists, 
nails, and carpenters' work, raises the total expense of placing the sheep 
on boards to \s. 4d. per head. Instead of sleepers I used small blocks, 
6 inches thick, to keep the rafters from direct contact with the manure. 
The boards are put together into frames about 10 feet by 4, so that they 
may easily be taken up by one man. Beneath the boards the floor, ex- 
cavated 8 or 9 inches, is puddled and made water-tight, and covered 
with 6 inches of sawdust, burnt clay, or good dry mould. This receives 
and absorbs the manure which falls, or is swept below twice a-daj'. 
The boards, after sweeping, are watered with a solution of 3 lbs. of 
sulphate of iron, which instantaneouslv removes the odour not only of 
the ammonia, but of the more offensive sulphuretted hydrogen. The 
boards should be laid perfectly flat, to prevent the sheep slipping about. 
The sheep are fed under the sheds, not in the courts. The results of 
this arrangement have been most successful, both in the health and tcell- 
daing of the sheep. 
It is true that I have lost four head, which seem to have died from 
apoplexy ; but I lost the same number in the flock which were at large, 
and treated in the usual manner. Though I have had more than 300 
Southdowns so shedded, some of them longer than five months, yet I 
have never seen any instance of lameness, even in the least dcKree. 
Their food consists of turnips, for the last fortnight only of swedes; 
half a pint per day (never more) of oats or pea? ; with straw cut into 
chafl', over which ground linseed has been poured, mixed with boiling 
water. 
I regret that I cannot send the important statistics of weight and im- 
provement under this regimen. During one month the sheep were 
weighed, and found to have increased about 3 lbs. per week on an aver- 
age ; that is, ten were selected and weighed which seemed fairly to 
represent the flock, and thev had made this improvement. The illness 
of my bailiff' stopped these calculations; but the general issue will be 
allowed to be satisfactory, as more than half have been sold which in 
twelve weeks have paid 13*. a-head. 
Leaving cut of the account both the injurv which in bad seasons my 
elay -lands would have sustained by the treading of the sheep, and the 
Talue of the rich manure saved under shelter (its gases fixed by the 
R 2 
