AS FOOD FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP, 311 



"vvlien store-cattle, owing to a superabundance of roots, have been 

 allowed a very liberal, if not, indeed, an unlimited supply of 

 turnips, they have proved leaner and in a lower state of health 

 and thriving generally when turned out to the grass in spring 

 than similar stock have been which were fed upon a moderate 

 allowance of roots of no better quality. This corroboration of 

 our contention cannot but carry great weight with it, for almost 

 every stock-owner has either met with it in his own experience 

 or has observed it in that of his neio^hbours or others. Here 

 then are instances where a very liberal allowance of roots did 

 positive harm as compared with a smaller supply where no 

 other food was ^iven. 



Mr M'Combie of Tillyfour's recorded experience of giving his 

 store beasts and even his commercial cattle, as he was wont to 

 term his ordinary beefers, nothing but turnips and straw until 

 about six wrecks before they were consigned to the fat market, 

 may be quoted as militating against this view. But there are 

 two circumstances which seem to make that eminent feeder's 

 experience exceptional to some extent. The one consists in the 

 superior quality of his turnips, to tlie importance of which fact 

 he himself seems to have been fully alive. The other is the fact 

 that his cattle were generally aged, four years of age or so, wdien 

 they w^ere prepared for the market, and that they had previously 

 been kept on superior grazing-land. At that stage tlie period 

 of natural growth was past, and they had been well prepared 

 internally by nourishing natural food in the form of grass. 



On the other side of the Atlantic, where roots are not nearly 

 so plentiful as they are here, careful experiments have been con- 

 ducted with the view of economising this expensive crop, and of 

 ascertainimj^ what dailv allowance of these can be sriven to stock 

 with the greatest proht. Mr James Biggar, tlie delegate from 

 Ivirkcudbriglit to Canada in 1879, speaking in his report of the 

 work at the Ontario School of Agriculture and Model Farm, 

 says : — " They are at present carrying on experiments in cattle- 

 feeding witli animals of difFerent breeds, and test the increase 

 of live weight on the scales from time to time. I'rofessor Brown 

 expects each animal to gain 2 lbs. per head daily. He lias found 

 it profitable to reduce the allowance of roots to 30 lbs. or 40 lbs. 

 daily, and allow a larger quantity of grain, &c. — G lbs. to 10 lbs., 

 according to circumstances." He mentions that Mr Hobson, an 

 extensive cattle-feeder in the same district, gives 12 lbs. to 

 15 lbs. meal daily, and GO lbs. roots. A Mr iJonaldson in the 

 same province found it profitable to allow GO lbs. to 70 lbs. 

 turnips, and from 8 Ihs. to 10 lbs. meal and bran daily. The 

 ration of r(jotH to fattening cattle at the model farm attached to 

 the Ontario School of Agriculture is exce])tionally small, but in 

 .exj)lanation thereof, and in forming an estimate of its expediency, 



