SCOTCH HILL SHEEP. 271 



together, one being either peas or lentils, have given excellent 

 results. The actual mixture is determined by the relative prices, 

 according to the feeding value of the suitable food substances 

 in the market. We do not consider it dear if, calculating all 

 carriages and charges, we have it on the spot at about Id. per lb. 

 This brings the cost per head, giving § lb. each, if continued 

 nearly eight weeks to 3s. Half this will be repaid in an 

 ordinary year by the increased quantity and quality of the 

 wool alone. We usually buy before Christmas what oats may 

 be required, and should these not be all used up, we usually have 

 had by selling in May, at least 6d. per bushel profit for 

 storing. 



For convenience, enough of the mixed food to suffice for a 

 week or so is put into a strong wooden box or barrel, with the 

 joints made water-tight by nailing along strips of leather cut from 

 old cart harness, placed on dry ground, near each lot of troughs. 



Sheep have been successfully fed by us on Indian corn, sown 

 out on a clean dry and bare piece of ground ; and we have 

 known good results from locust beans given in the same way. 

 Sheep soon learn to gather these off the ground. The practical 

 difficulty of giving food thus is not easily overcome on an 

 ordinary hill farm, although it may do very well in bare, hard 

 fields, and besides, though better than no feeding, the best 

 results can not be expected from such foods alone. 



Turnips are so bulky and heavy, that to carry those on to a 

 hill would be quite out of the question. Wether hoggs, that 

 go off at three years old, do well to winter on them in the low 

 country ; but turnips are not at all suitable to give to ewe hoggs, 

 as they have such an effect on the constitutions of hill sheep, 

 if given before the sheep are a year old, that the greater number 

 lose their incisor or front teeth about the age of four, which is 

 serious where it is the custom to keep them till five years old 

 or even more. It is a matter of little consequence with sheep 

 in a lowland district, which are put away after having three 

 lambs ; as the alteration of constitution does not show itself in 

 any other way than by the loss of teeth. It has been supposed 

 by some, that the cause of the second teeth falling out so soon 

 may be that the lambs break their milk teeth by biting the hard 

 turnips ; but this has been shown to have nothing to do with it, 

 as the result is the same whether the turnips are given whole or 

 cut. 



We look forward to ensilage to supply a want long felt to 

 hill sheep in a cold and barren spring, when nearly every green 

 thing is withered up, but more particularly to ewes in lambing 

 time, that are a little short of milk, and those that have to 

 be shut up to get a lamb " twinned." Ensilage can be made 

 by piling grass, spret, or any succulent grassy food, into a 



