AS FOOD FOE CATTLE AND SHEEP. 309 



turnips, what substances ought to be used as substitutes for the 

 proportion of watery bulbs withheld, and in what quantities and 

 jjroportions ought these to be given ? Before proceeding to 

 attempt to answer this question, it may be proper at this stage, 

 to remark generally, that some portion of the food so substituted 

 should be bulky in its character. This holds good alike in 

 regard to cattle and sheep, though in a greater degree of the 

 former than the latter. In a valuable lecture delivered before 

 the Dublin Society, about fifteen years ago, Mv Lawes showed, 

 that in consequence of a difference subsisting in the proportions 

 of intestines and stomachs, cattle can consume a coarser and 

 more bulky food than sheep, whilst sheep again may be fed with 

 a less nutritious food than pigs. He showed that for 100 lbs. 

 weight the ox has llj lbs. stomach and only 2J lbs. of intes- 

 tines; the sheep, 7h lbs. of stomach and 3 J lbs. intestines; 

 whilst the pig has only 1% lb. stomach to 6*2 lbs. of intestines. 

 Thus the ox is enabled to take a larger proportion of bulky 

 food than sheep, and sheep than pigs. Thus the size of the 

 stomach of the ox and the sheep points to the desirability of a 

 bulky food, inasmuch as the digestive organs of both classes 

 being naturally adapted for disposing of bulky and but moder- 

 ately nutritive food, it is essential to their comfort and healthful 

 rumination that their food be in sufficient bulk to enable the 

 animal at each meal to fill its paunch. No doubt a bullock 

 could be fed pretty successfully, at least for a limited time, upon 

 concentrated food alone, provided it has also an abundant 

 supply of water at its command. But in such a case its 

 digestive organs would be much more liable to become deranged 

 than w4en being allowed bulky food in fair proportion to the 

 provision which nature lias made for the accommodation and 

 digestion of its victuals, and besides a smaller portion of such 

 concentrated food would probably be made use of, and assimi- 

 lated by the system, than would be the case if it were mixed 

 with some bulky material. It is not essential, or even of first 

 imi)ortance, that there should be much nourishment in this 

 liUing-up substance. All that is necessary, or at least highly 

 desirable, is that it should be sulficient to satisfy the demands 

 of the bovine system for bulk of provender, hay, straw, oat 

 husks, or meal seeds, bran, &c., being commonly used and very 

 suitable. Though sheep, from their physical construction, can 

 do with a relatively smaller proj)ortion of l)ulky food than cattle, 

 yet it is e({ually important to bear in mind that the above 

 remarks apply generally to them also. Cattle always get fodder, 

 which serves the purpose well or iiuliiVerently, according to the 

 quantity allowed ; but, not infre(iuently, the consumption of 

 turnips by sheep is ])racti('.ally restricted, by giving them a very 

 liberal diet of dry concentrated i'o«jd, without any other bulky 



