AS POOD FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP. 327 



But tlie question arises, what plan should be substituted for 

 that of feeding sheep upon turnips alone which we have 

 condemned as unnatural and wasteful ? The system, as prac- 

 tised by the best feeders in England, which we advocate is to 

 give ordinary feeding sheep only one-half or thereby of the 

 quantity of roots daily which they w^ould consume if dependent 

 on them alone, and to give to each, as a substitute for the 

 turnips thus withheld, from 1 lb. to IJ lb. daily of oat chaff, cut 

 straw, cut hay, or a mixture of both. This will suffice to keep 

 the sheep in ordinary store condition ; but in the case of clipped 

 sheep, three-parts bred, half-bred, and similar lambs, which it is 

 desired to push forward for the fat market, they should have an 

 additional allow^ance of oats, cake, and other artificial food. 

 Previous to the winter of 1864—65 this system had been practised 

 only by a very few flock-masters south of the Border. But 

 owing to the drought of 1864 the root crop of that year was 

 very deficient everywhere in England. Sheep owners were put 

 to their wits end so to economise their roots as to bring through 

 their stock to the spring. Necessity proved the mother of 

 invention, for they made 1 acre of turnips keep twice as many 

 sheep as before ; and the concurrent testimony of many eminent 

 authorities who acted on the system w^as, that the sheep were in 

 a healthier and more thriving condition than when they had an 

 unlimited supply of roots. The deficient root crops of 18G8 and 

 1870 again necessitated the \A^n being widely followed, which 

 was done witli the most satisfactory results. Subsequently, the 

 ])ractice of giving a proportion of dry fodder, such as straw and 

 hay, and also of bran, along with the roots, has been regularly 

 followed, even wlien it was not rendered necessary by a partial 

 failure in the root crop. Thus it lias been acknowledged that 

 great and lasting good flowed from what was regarded at the 

 time as an umnitigated e\ il. 



Turnijys <jlccn to Sheep should he Cut. 



Before proceeding to specify in detail how cut] fodder can 

 be given with advantage to the different classes of sheep, wo 

 would point out the economy effected in the consumption of 

 turnips by giving them to sheep in a cut form in troughs. The 

 u] (lifting and cutting of them are not indis])ensable to getting 

 the slieep to consume a liberal allowance of cut hay or cut straw, 

 especially when these have had treacle-water sprinkled over 

 them or other more elaborate condiment mixed with them. But 

 many advantages follow the feeding of sheep upon cut roots as 

 conqtared with leaving them to subsist u])on the whole bulbs 

 growing in the ground. In fact, the latter system is the most 

 unec(momical, not to say positively wasteful, in which turnips 

 <;an be given to sheep. 



