336 ON THE ECOXOMICAL USE OF TURXirS 



ill England, who have had extensive experience of both systems, 

 testify in the most unqualified manner that they have found the 

 one diet to be quite as nourishing for their stock as the other. 



Our calculations have been based on the assumption that 

 straw is the kind of bulky dry material used along with the 

 turnips as food for sheep. That fodder is well adapted for the 

 pur^DOse, and in the case of Cheviot and half-bred ewes, which 

 do not require an unusually nourishing diet to maintain them 

 in a desirable condition, it will generally be found sufficient to 

 be mixed with the roots, without the addition of concentrated 

 food of any kind. The plan is sometimes followed in Scotland 

 of cutting up unthrashed oat sheaves and giving them to sheep 

 in troughs. It is found to answer well, its chief drawback being 

 that it is difficult to judge what quantity of oats the sheep are 

 having supplied to them. It is an excellent plan to cut down 

 with the reaping machine growing oats a w^eek or ten days 

 before they are ripe, and to prepare them, either in sheaves or 

 broadcast like hay, for being stacked, with the view^ of their 

 being put through the chaff-cutter and given to sheep. Chemists 

 say there is almost if not quite as much nourishment in the 

 grain at that stage as when it is fully ripe, and not only is the 

 straw in this comparatively gi^een state more nutritious than 

 when ripe, but the sheep partake of it freely and with apparent 

 relish. A portion of a crop might be chosen for this purpose, where 

 the grain, even when fully ripe, would be limited in quantity and 

 inferior in quality to the other cereal produce of the farm. Where 

 hay — either meadow or rye-grass — is available, it is well suited 

 for giving to feeding sheep along with turnips. Its nourish- 

 ing properties are much greater than those of straw, and more- 

 over, the manurial qualities of the excrement of stock fed upon 

 it are very greatly superior to those of any kind of straw. 

 Indeed, if the relative value of the manure obtained from the 

 consumption of rye-grass hay was sufficiently appreciated, less of 

 it w^ould be sold and more of it consumed on the farm than is 

 generally the case. Mr Lawes estimates the manurial value of 

 clover-hay consumed by stock at £2, 5s. 6d. per ton, of meadow 

 hay at £1, 10s. 6d., and of oat straw at only 13s. 6d. 



In all cases where sheep are being pushed forward for the 

 fat market, they ought to have a daily allowance of oats, cake, 

 peas, or similar supplemental food. The system, widely followed 

 in the principal sheep-feeding districts of Scotland, of sheep- 

 feeders " taking " the turnips from the growers to be consumed 

 by sheep at a stipulated price per acre or rate per week for 

 each sheep, seriously militates against artificial food being given 

 as a supplement to the roots, just as we understand the similar 

 plan, common in Aberdeenshire, of cattle-feeders consuming 

 turnips and straw by cattle, at a fixed price per acre for the roots, 



