548 



The Country Gciitlcmmis Magadnc 



been the yield and price obtained, that large profits 

 have l)een made which will doubtless stimulate the 

 culture next year. 



I have before remarked that the great advantage in 

 the South of Ireland is the climate which matures the 

 crop earlier, and favours all the after operations con- 

 nected with its preparation. 



Last year the growers of this valuable crop had to 

 struggle against many obstacles^one was indifferent 

 seed, which vegetated very imperfectly ; the result in 

 some cases was total loss ; in others, thin crops. This 

 year there is little likelihood of cause for complaint 

 respecting the important item of seed. The testimony 

 this season is general as to the superior quality of all 



descriptions, and in such quantity as to warrant an 

 expectation of moderate prices. Foreign supply will 

 lie supplemented to some extent by seed saved in 

 Ireland, which, when once grown from foreign, is 

 considered to produce a favourable crop. We had a 

 diminished acreage this year in Ireland, but there were 

 causes in operation to produce this result, which, it is 

 to be hoped, will not occur in the coming year. We 

 have passed through a summer of almost unprecedented 

 dryness and heat, which materially injured flax on poor 

 soils ; but this should not, nor will it, deter the farmer 

 again sowing flax, which, when cultivated with judg- 

 ment, care, and skill, is, without doubt, on an average 

 of years, the most paying crop of his rotation. 



WINTER KEEP FOR SHEEP. 



THE following seasonable article appeared in the 

 editorial columns of the Agricultural Gazette of 

 Oct. 17 : — There is a law of reaction in human- 

 affairs, and especially in markets. The price at which 

 store sheep are now sold, 30s. for gooil half-bred ewes 

 and 25s. for lambs, is about 50 per cent, below their 

 usual value. To avoid this sacrifice we recommend a 

 plan by which we have maintained a large head of 

 sheep and lambs without roots, by feeding them on 

 straw chaff softened and made nutritious with hot 

 farinaceous soup. The only apparatus required is a 

 copper for boiling water. In heavy-land districts, 

 where roots are always dearer food than corn and cut 

 straw, steam power chaff-cutters, on wheels, travel 

 from farm to farm, and soon reduce a stack of straw to 

 fine sifted chaff. The meal should be of Indian corn, 

 beans, peas, cake, barley, &c. About one-fourth of 

 the quantity used should be boiled with the water ; the 

 soup should be well stirred into the chaff, and the rest 

 of the meal then added and well mixed with the heap. 

 A lump of rock salt should be put into the troughs. 



The quantity of chaff each sheep will eat is about 

 2^ lb. a day, and in the coldest weather rather more. 

 A stout lamb eats >^ lb. a day less. The food, when 

 well prepared, is damp, but not wet, and free from 

 lumps of pudding and unmixed meal. The quantity 

 of meal should be about 3-^ lb. a day for a lamb at 

 starting, increased to i lb. a day as the season advances. 

 The present price of beans and of maize is id. a lb., 

 and the cost of the corn would be 5/i(d. to 7d. each 

 per week. Best linseed-cake is nearly i^d. W^e 

 prefer one-fourth or one-fifth of oil-cake in the mix- 



ture, reducing the average cost to id. a lb. by using a 

 portion of rape-cake, which gives a i)iquant flavour to 

 \\\Q potage 'Cddi'i is never objected to. 



One pound of meal a day will maintain a lamb 

 tlirough the winter in good store order, but without 

 roots it will not fatten him. The health of our flock 

 has always been excellent, and the ewes have lambed 

 satisfactorily ; but their treatment has differed from that 

 of the other sheep. The latter are folded on stubbles 

 and clover-leas the whole of the winter, while the 

 former — lambing about the first week in February — 

 are removed at Christmas from the stubbles to the 

 pastures and sheltered at night in yards, where they 

 receive a mixture made less stimulating by using ]^ lb. 

 a head less meal, and adding Y^ lb. of pollard. They 

 should also have a few bushels of uncut roots a day on 

 the pastures ; and there must always be free access to 

 water. The other flocks may have water taken to them, 

 but the ewes must always be able to go to the water, 

 or there will lie thirst and excessive drinking, followed 

 by abortion. 



The cost of boiling the water, mixing the food, 

 carrying it to the field, moving the fold, &c., is rather 

 less than id. a week per head. Heavy land is folded 

 with great advantage after a corn crop on the stubble. 

 If a small quantity of mangold can be spared and 

 heaped in the field, they will save a portion of corn. 

 We have had to maintain lambs during 24 weeks, up 

 to 2 1st of April, without roots, and they were then in 

 common store condition. It is hardly necessai-y to add 

 that in the case of ewes in milk there is no adequate 

 substitute for succulent food. 



