332 ox THE ECOxo:\ricAL use of tuexips 



moderately large size ; and, moreover, it should be borne in mind 

 that the work is diminished by the restricted quantity of turnips 

 consumed by a given number of sheep. Mr Bryce Wright.. 

 Dowhill, Ayrshire, may be quoted as a sheep feeder who, as 

 the result of lengthened experience, reports favourably of the 

 system of pulping roots at the steading by horse-power and of 

 carting the mixture to tlie fields where the sheep are folded. 

 He does not allow the mixture to lie lonsj before beincj used, as 

 he finds the sheep eat it more readily when given in a fresh 

 form. The proportion of fodder in the heap intended for sheep 

 is not so great as in that for cattle, and the oats, cake, &c., are 

 mixed with the pulp, which lias the recommendation of pre- 

 venting individual sheep from gorging themselves with too 

 much concentrated food. 



AVe have already dwelt on the nnsuitableness of turnips alone 

 as food for ewes heavy in lamb. The system which we are 

 advocating, of giving sheep a proportion of cut hay or straw, is 

 admirably adapted for them. They thrive well upon it, a ad 

 where it is practised a large flock of ewes can be brought through 

 the winter on a comparatively small supply of roots. The quan- 

 tity of each kind of food given by those who successfully follow 

 the system in England is from 6 lbs. to 8 lbs. of roots and from 

 1 lb. to IJ lbs. of cut hay or straw for each ewe. In this case 

 the former are commonly pulped and mixed with the oat chaff 

 or cut fodder. During the winter months, so long as the ewes 

 are kept upon the pasture fields, they might have a considerably 

 smaller allowance than, these quantities, as they would succeed 

 in picking up a good deal of food from the grass parks. But in 

 very early spring — say in the end of January or beginning of 

 February — when it is customary in many districts to remove 

 them to the fields where the turnips were grown, with the view 

 of having the grass fields thoroughly cleaned before lambing 

 time comes round, they could have the mixture supplied to 

 them in troughs, or the cut roots and cut fodder could be given 

 separately as suggested with feeding sheep. The objections often 

 urged against giving ewes heavy in lamb any kind of food in 

 troughs will probably occur to not a few flockmasters, ^dz., that 

 in such a system there is a great danger of the ewes "kebbing," 

 as abortion in sheep is commonly called in Scotland. There 

 certainly is such a danger if the system is carelessly carried out, 

 either from there beingj too few trousfhs or from the troughs 

 being too much crowded together. But this is the abuse, not 

 the nse of the system. Testimony upon testimony could be 

 quoted from English flockmasters to the effect that with ordinary 

 prudence and care they have encountered no such evils from 

 extensive and lengthened experience of the system. 



In the winter of 1879-80 a small flock of fifty c:ist Cheviot 



