REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 301 



abroad, so many farmers are not made sufficiently careful and 

 cautious in the matter of storing their turnips without now 

 and again suffering the loss which an unusually severe winter 

 entails. 



Artificial food is often given to the sheep along with the 

 turnips. Several advantages result from giving them a liberal 

 supply of such food. One obvious one is, that stock is thereby 

 made more speedily fit for the fat market, and thus capital is 

 more speedily turned over. Further, when cake or grain is 

 given, the clip of wool is better in respect of both quantity and 

 quality than when the sheep are fed on turnips alone. Again, 

 as we shall see by-and-by, the quantity of turnips consumed is 

 diminished as the amount of artificial food given is increased. 

 Another advantage, which is not the less important that it is not 

 so apparent, is that the droppings of the sheep, being enriched in 

 proportion to the quantity of artificial food given, increase the 

 value of the succeeding white crop. We have heard this esti- 

 mated by a good authority as equal to one-half of the outlay in 

 such food. This may be an exaggerated estimate, but we are 

 persuaded that sheep feeders generally are not sufficiently alive 

 to the benefits resulting from this practice. 



As remarked under a previous section, Dumfriesshire stands 

 at the top of the tree in the practice of sheep feeding upon 

 turnips. The best class of sheep that are fed upon them are the 

 half-bred lambs which are reared on the arable farms. Many 

 arable farmers purchase the five and six-year-old Cheviot ewes 

 from the hill stocks, and take delivery of them about the begin- 

 ning of October. They are put to Leicester tups, and yield about 

 one and one-third lambs on an average. These are weaned about 

 the 10th or 12th of August ; and the ewes, having been fed upon 

 grass and turnips, are principally sent to the fat market about 

 January, and generally weigh about sixteen pounds per quarter. 

 The clip of wool taken from them the preceding summer may 

 weigh four pounds. A few farmers are in the habit of selecting 

 about one-half of the best of the lambs so produced on the low 

 lands and feeding them separately. When put upon the turnips 

 in October they may weigh about eleven pounds per quarter. 

 The white varieties are consumed first, but from the middle of 

 November until the 1st of February they feed upon the yellow 

 kinds, and afterwards they are put upon the swedes. In the 

 lower districts, where that variety is more extensively grown, 

 they are put upon swedes as early as Christmas. So long as 

 sheep of this class get no artificial food they will each consume 

 about twenty-eight pounds of turnips per day, but if one and a- 

 half pound of oats are given per day to each, the consumption 

 of turnips will be reduced to about eighteen pounds. When fed 

 in the manner now specified, the above quantity of oats being 



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