CATTLE OR SHEEP TOGETHER OR SEPARATELY. 241 



besides this^ it must be remembered that high feeding changes 

 'the quality of the mutton, and such a change would soon tell in 

 the market. Hay or Indian corn seem to be harmless, but they 

 cannot always be procured in remote places. 



It is true that sheep are fed on turnips to a very great extent ; 

 but these sheep are not to be sent back to their native hills. If 

 they were, a poor account would have to be given of them, and 

 the carrion crow and such creatures would have cause to rejoice. 



Sheep may be reared in parks or fed on turnip, oil cake, &c., 

 and brought to great size, but the mutton would not be the 

 kind of mutton that has acquired its high character as the pro- 

 duce of tlie hillsides. Eed deer might also be reared in parks, 

 and increased in weight, but it would be discovered ere long, by 

 the consumer and the butcher, that it was not venison they were 

 getting^, but very indifferent beef, not to be compared with that 

 of a Highland bullock or heifer. Adulteration of food is a bad 

 thing, and here is a very insidious phase of it, insomuch as 

 those with whom it begins appear not to be conscious of doing 

 anything amiss. A plain hint on the subject, offiered in a friendly 

 spirit, may not be entirely out of place. 



EXPERIMENTS OX THE CULTURE OF TURNIPS. 



By Thomas Lawson, Sandyford, Kirriemuir. 



[Premiu/n — Twenty Sovereigns. ] 



The turnip crop occupies a primary position of importance in 

 its relation to the agriculture of Scotland, and anything which 

 tends to gi^ow this important and valualjle root more effectively 

 and economically than has been hitherto done, is both eagerly 

 and attentively inquired into by agriculturists, and never more 

 so than at present, when foreign competition is waging war 

 against our home agriculture, which, crippled by a sequence of 

 bad seasons, will require all our eflorts at economy to success- 

 fully cope with it. Mr Thomas Janiieson, the talented chemist 

 and practical experimentalist of the Aberdeen Association, some 

 years ago drew the attention of the agricultural public to the 

 expediency of using ground instead of soluble phosphates, 

 stating, as his belief, that the one was almost, if not alto- 

 gether, as efficacious for the growth of turnijjs as the other, 

 with the recommendation in favour of the former, that it was 

 little n)ore than half the price of the latter. Subsequent experi- 

 ments, conducted by Mr Jamieson, have borne out the views he 

 at that time enunciated. In 1S7S, Dr A. P. Aitken, on behalf 

 of tlie liighlmd Society of Scotland, took up the same question 

 as the Aherdeen Association, on a much larger scale, with the 

 result, that the experiments in the Lothians conducted by him 

 have tended, U) a very consideral)le extent, to corroborate ^Ir 

 Jamiesou's tindings in Aberdce.nshire, so far as these two arc 



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