AS FOOD FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP. 291 



as maize, cotton, and other foreign cakes, the work of producing 

 beef and mutton can be prosecuted with much greater safety as 

 regards the health of the animals, as well as on a much more 

 extensiv^e scale. Hence, it never was so important as now, that 

 whatever may be the success with which turnips have been 

 raised in any particular season, they should be put to the best 

 and most economical use. 



General Prccdice of coiisitminrj Turnips in Scotland. 



And here the question meets us face to face. Have turnips 

 hitherto been put to the best and most economical use in Scot- 

 land ? We unhesitatingly reply in the negative, on the ground 

 that by far too many watery bulbs have been given to both 

 cattle and sheep in the past, though it is a gratifying and hopeful 

 circumstance that the general practice is steadily undergoing 

 improvement in this particular. In the early history of the 

 turnip crop in Xorth Britain it was the universal practice to 

 •give cattle being prepared for the fat market an unlimited 

 supply of bulbs, with no other food except long straw or hay — 

 commonly the former. Young store cattle, when the crop was 

 a plentiful one, had the same food supplied to them. This 

 system is still pursued to a considerable extent in Aberdeenshire 

 and some other districts, and it found its most prominent 

 master and advocate in the person of the late Mr M'Combie of 

 Tilly four, w^hose name must always be mentioned with becom- 

 ing respect as a breeder, grazier, and feeder of the best class of 

 cattle. The only modification of this system which Mr 

 M'Combie ado})ted in his later years, was to allow a limited 

 quantity of concentrated food to the cattle for a short time 

 before they w^ere despatched to the fat market. He says in his 

 " Cattle and Cattle Breeders," p. 31 :— " The method I adopt as to 

 using cake and corn is the following : — On the ditl'erent farms 

 where I feed the cattle, I put a fourth part of their number only 

 upon cake and corn at one time, and six weeks is about my 

 limit of time for cake and corn, etc., paying the feeder before 

 they are to be sent to the fat market." " For commercial cattle 

 and for commercial ])urposes, two months is the utmost limit 

 that cake and corn will pay the Aberdeenshire feeder. There 

 can be no substitute for grass, straw, and turnips, except for a 

 very limited period" (p. oO). He also mentions that it was his 

 invariable ])ractice to give his wintering cattle as many turnips 

 as they could e:it, and that his store cattle never saw cake, corn, 

 or jiotatoes. We have (pioted Mr ^rCumbie's views and practice 

 in tliis way because he may betaken as a favourable representa- 

 ive of the once numerous but gradually diminishing class of 

 cattle-feeders who believe in giving cattle an unlimited supply 



