THEIR CAUSES, NATURE, AND PREVENTION. 187 



latter contain a tolerable quantity of potash also ; and I cannot 

 comprehend why sheep farmers do not cultivate, more than they 

 now do, such crops as thousand-headed and other cabbage which 

 could be readily conveyed to the poorer lands, or in the case of 

 the thousand-headed cabbage eaten off in rotation. I must, 

 however, deprecate the injudicious allowance of such ma- 

 terials to sheep, and, above all things, I abhor undecorticated 

 cotton cake. I will here give one instance, out of many which 

 have come under my observation, of the astounding ignorance 

 which prevails in reference to the admixture and allowance of 

 feeding stuffs. In the spring of this year I was consulted, by 

 letter, about the death of a large number of sheep in Lin- 

 colnshire. After describing the symptoms presented by the 

 animals, my correspondent went on to say, "The food of the 

 sheep is as follows : — Waterloo cake, cotton cake, oats, maize, 

 swedes (cut up). They run on grass land, which is a dry layer, 

 and have as much of the above food as they can eat ; I may say 

 they are pushed, and are very fat," and well they might be, and 

 no wonder that on making the post-mortem examination my 

 correspondent found " the bladder distended with urine and 

 inflamed, and containing calcareous matter in its interior ; the 

 lungs congested and the kidneys flabby and degenerated." 



The deductions I would draw from the foregoing observations 

 for the guidance of the stockowner are — 1st, That he cannot 

 over-force sheep without suffering the penalty in the shape of a 

 large percentage of deaths, and in great waste of material ; 

 2nd, That all sudden changes of management are injurious in 

 the extreme. Judicious changing of food and pasturage should 

 always be practised and, where it can be done, the resources of 

 his own holding should be supplemented by the farmer from 

 the superabundance of his neighbours ; sheep require change 

 more frequently than do other animcds. I have already 

 referred to my father's management of his sheep. No man 

 prepared more sheep for the butcher, in proportion to the 

 size of his farm, than he ; but they were scattered in lots 

 all over the country side and frequently changed and when 

 put on to fresh turnips they were limited as to quantity, par- 

 ticularly at the outset, and here I may remark that in turnip- 

 feeding there is often more food wasted and fouled than 

 is made use of; 3rd, I would say to the stockowner, let your 

 feeding be as natural as possible ; don't waste your substance 

 in buying everybody's celebrated compositions but purchase 

 the raw materials and make your own mixtures, then you 

 know what you are giving to your sheep, and you are not 

 "paying throvxjh the nose " by purchasing stuff which in 

 many instances is not worth the price paid for it by 20 or 80 

 per cent. 



