AS FOOD FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP. 303 



Large sup2^lics of Tiwnij^is prejudicial to the Health of 



Breeding Stock. 



Our object up to this point has been to show, from general 

 considerations, that the practice of feeding cattle and sheep 

 solely or principally upon turnips is unnatural, extravagant, 

 and even wasteful. Before proceeding to consider what ought 

 to be substituted for a portion of the watery roots, we would 

 point out the important fact, that a large supply of turnips to 

 in-calf-cows and ew^es in-lamb is prejudicial to their health, and 

 therefore is equally to be condemned on that account as it is 

 on the ground of direct economy. The general health of feeding 

 and store cattle and sheep suffers in a comparatively small degree 

 from a liberal allowance of roots, unless when they get a com- 

 plete surfeit of them, or where the bulbs are frosted, in which 

 case serious consequences not infrequently ensue, especially in 

 the case of cattle. But when live stock are pregnant, the matter 

 is entirely changed, and experience has show^n that, when in that 

 exceptional condition, they are very liable to be injured by too 

 large an allow^ance of turnips. 



Large supplies of roots are believed by many experienced 

 farmers to have a tendency to cause abortion in the case of cows 

 in calf. Our subject is otherwise such a wide one that we did 

 not make extensive inquiries on this branch of it. Mr AVilliam 

 Housman, writing in the last number of " The Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society of England's Journal" (vol. xvi., part 2) on the 

 management of a shorthorn herd, says in regard to the various 

 systems pursued in Aberdeenshire: " It has been noticed that cows 

 casting their calves is the more common in years when there is 

 a large supply of turnips and a small crop of straw." An emi- 

 nent breeder of shorthorns in Scotland, in a communication to 

 us in regard to this point, says : " The farm, like most in the 

 district, is worked on the principle of supplying the stock with 

 turnips and straw alone as food in winter. Of late years, the 

 bad seasons have so reduced the crops of turnips grown, that 

 occasionally we have had to depend on artilieial sul)stitutes. 

 The prices of food cause dilTerence in practice ; but perhaps the 

 most satisfactory plan has been to give, instead of the mid-day 

 meal of turnips, a feed of l^l 11). ground decorticated cotton cako 

 mixed with H lb. oat husks. In ordinary seasons we give three 

 feeds of turnips, each weighing from .*>0 lbs. to 40 lbs., with 

 about 10 lbs. of oat or barley straw ; and in bad seasons we have 

 given a night and morning feed of about 30 lbs. turnips each, 

 and a mid-day allowance of 1^, 11). cotton cake and l.V lb. oat 

 liusks, with a liberal supply of water and the usual allowance 

 of straw given at three diflerent limes. Our experience has 



