Fig. 65.
Rack for inside feeding.
Fig. 66.
Fig. 67.
Rack for outside feeding.
The plan here given is of a building forty feet wide and sixty feet long. It has two stories, the first being nine feet high and the second six feet from the floor to the eaves. It is advisable to make the height of the lower story nine feet to secure the best results in ventilation. The sills are six by eight inches, resting preferably on stone foundation, and if set on posts they should be heavier. The ground both on the inside and outside should come close to the sills, so that no obstruction is offered by the sills to the free passage of the sheep through the doors. The doors are all four feet wide, and those that are used by the sheep should be sliding; the windows are three feet wide and four and one-half feet high. In the center of the sheep apartment there are double doors ten feet wide. When both are opened and the center post removed a wagon can be driven through to remove the manure from the pens.
The arrangement of the lower floor has been adjusted so as to give the sheep the smallest amount of space and yet have easily accessible feed racks that would give sufficient room to the sheep for feeding. The feed racks are all permanent, as there is no necessity for their removal, and they form a wall for the passage way which runs through the center. In this way it is easy to put hay in them, and it is very easy to put grain into the troughs in front of them. As will be seen in the ground plan there are two chutes at each end, down which the hay is thrown from the loft. From where it falls it is easily distributed into all the racks.