AS FOOD FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP. 305 



of Scotland and other localities to fold park ewes upon the tur- 

 nip fields during February and ]\Iarch with the twofold object of 

 providing, as is most erroneously thought, an abundant supply 

 of nourishing food for the expectant mothers, and also to allow 

 the pasture helds to become clean and fresh preparatory to the 

 advent of the lambing season. On the merits of this system w^e 

 would quote the verdict and testimony of a well-known autho- 

 rity south of the Border, viz., Mr Coleman, Eiccall Hall, York : 

 " The practice formerly so common of stuffing breeding ewes 

 with roots is most extravagant, most unhealthy, and most unna- 

 tural. A good turnip year in Xorfolk w^as invariably followed 



by a bad lambing season It is stated in 



Morton's ' Cyclopiedia of Agriculture ' that a ewe will consume 

 daily from one-third to one-fourth of its live weight of roots 

 when supplied with these alone — that is, from 25 lbs. to 30 lbs 

 daily. Of this bulk of food nine-tenths is water ; the tempera- 

 ture of which water, in the winter, is seldom many degrees above 

 the freezing-point. How much of the food of the animal must be 

 burned away, so to speak, in order to raise this mass to the tem- 

 perature of the body ! If, moreover, the animal is lying or 

 standing on wet ground, which can hardly be avoided, the body 

 becomes so chilled externally as well as internally that the 

 fcetus is starved; a number of dead or pot-bellied and weakly 

 lambs is the result, especially from shearling ewes. The only 

 wonder should be that any escape" (" Koyal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal," vol. i., second series, p. 246). Mr Joseph Darby, in the 

 same journal for 1877, remarks, ''For ewes heavy in lamb, how- 

 ever, a full supply of turnips, with no dry food of any sort as a 

 healthful alterative, must be extremely injudicious and hazardous. 

 The laws of physiology do not condemn the custom of allowing 

 ewes in lamb to live entirely upon turnips more than the prac- 

 tical experience of llockmasters themselves. Sad losses, indeed, 

 have accrued from persevering in the system, and yet some 

 farmers are so hard to turn out of old ruts tliat in various parts 

 of the kingdom it still holds sway." 



There is perhaps no person in Great Britain who has paid so 

 much attention to this phase of the inlhience of turni]>s as !Mr 

 Henry Woods, agent to Lord Walsingliam, Mertun, Thetford, 

 Norfolk. He made it a matter of tlie most extensive in([uiry, as 

 well as close personal ol)servation and study. He issued queries 

 to many tiockmasters and shepherds on the subject, and has eni- 

 Ijodied the substance of the four hundred repHcs which he received 

 in an invahiable lecture, entitled, "Abortion and ^lortality among 

 Ewes " (publislied at the "Norwich Mercury" OlHce). He quotes 

 details regarding many ilocks where a hirge and liljeral allow- 

 ance of roots had Ijcen followed by a very huge nundier of abor- 

 tions. It is impossible to peruse his masterly summary of the 



u 



