AS FOOD FOE CATTLE AND SHEEP. 319 



Mr Bruce believes that cattle will make more rapid progress 

 on the above allowance of dry concentrated food, with 64 lbs. of 

 turnips, than on the same allowance of the former, and 100 lbs., 

 that is, with 36 lbs. additional turnips, the saving in roots alone 

 being equivalent to 2d. daily for each beast. He has ascertained 

 from experience that cattle will consume about one-fourth more 

 roots which have been grown on light land than they will of 

 the same variety produced on heavy clay land. 



Messrs Thomas Biggar & Sons, Chapelton, Dalbeattie, feed a 

 large number of cattle. Their daily allowance of turnips to each 

 beast is 60 lbs., and the daily diet of supplemental food is 2 lbs. 

 linseed cake, 2 lbs. cotton cake (decorticated), both ground into 

 meal, 3 lbs. of Indian or Paisley meal, and 1 lb. oatmeal (Cana- 

 dian). This is mixed with an equal bulk of chaff and refuse 

 from rye-grass seed cleanings- (the latter ground fine). The 

 whole is placed in a cooler moistened with boiling water, in 

 which fully ^ lb. of treacle for each beast has been dissolved, and 

 after being allowed to lie for a few hours it is given in two feeds 

 (6 A.M. and 1 p.m.) to the cattle. The 8 lbs. of meal is estimated 

 at 7d., the chaff and seeds at Id., the treacle at |d., so that the 

 supplemental food, costing 8|d., and the turnips at 3Jd., bring 

 up the daily cost to Is. per each beast, besides long straw, which 

 is given ad libitum. The cattle are nearly three years of age,, 

 and some of them more. The turnips are placed in the troughs 

 whole, the swedes being split into three or four pieces with a 

 turnip chisel, and the cattle are found to eat them without 

 difficulty in this form. Messrs Biggar believe that the saliva- 

 tion wliich takes place in the eating of the turnips, as they give 

 them, is very conducive to digestion and to the general health 

 of the cattle. The loose cattle have access to water at all times, 

 and the others are offered it daily, but, while most of them par- 

 take of it at first, they gradually take less, and finally drink 

 almost none, tlie water in their mixed food and turnips seeming 

 sufficient for their necessities. 



oMessrs A. & J. M. Ilanntdi, Girvan IMains, Ayrshire, pulp all 

 their roots for their cattle, mixing chatf or cut straw with the 

 ])ulp, in the proportion of two of straw in bulk to live of turnips. 

 They have also long oat or barley straw ad libitum. A 6 cwt. 

 bullock consumes about 84 lbs. of the mixture daily, and they 

 get in addition 6 lbs. each of linseed cake, which may be 

 estimated at 9d., besides the value of the turnips, chail", and 

 straw. 



^Ir ^lilne, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, has been using the scales 

 a good deal in testing the progress made in live-weight by 

 cattle din\*rently fed, but he is not sufficiently satisfied with the 

 reliableness of his trials to warrant their being reported, llmv- 

 evcr, he has on several occasions observed that cattle receiving 



