THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



of grazing, which cau au«wer no man's purpose ; but I am well 

 aware there arc many heavy-land farmers of excellent busineBs 

 habita, of shrewd penetration and judgment, and of ample 

 capital, whose management will bear comparison with the best 

 farming in tlie land. With your permission I will proceed to 

 relate t!ie course I have pursued, and the reason why I have 

 acted as I have in my stock management. It will, of course, 

 be necessary for me to be rather egotistical ; but I must admit 

 I can see no good reason why we should all he so extremely 

 modest as to fear the use of those personal pronouns I, or we ; 

 for I stand before you not in the spirit of infalhb.lity, but 1 

 stand here to tell you the course I have pursued ; 1 stand to 

 relate my experience, that you may in a kindly and friendly 

 spirit criticise and censure my practice in any way you please. 

 I know well that different circumstances as to the price of food 

 allow and compel a different course of procedure in feeding. I 

 know too that a variatioii in the relative value of stock entails 

 a variation in practice; L\it I shall speak of the preieut time, 

 of the past five or six yeara, and under existing circumstances 

 Above all, I trust yon will besr in mind I am treating upon 

 stock farming on stiff retentive soils which require drainage. I 

 have shown that buying old beasts at a dear price, and fatten- 

 ing them expensively, does not answer ; that all grazing does 

 not pay ; I have shown that the system of all fallow, no root 

 crop, and no amount of stock, will not do ; and I have .shown 

 that, attempting to fatten that which has no disposition to 

 fatten, is a mistake. It was with an experience akin to this 

 that I undertook the maua:;enient of 600 acres of arable and 

 200 acres of paUure land, iu round uirmbers, in 1853, in Suf- 

 folk — it was land requiring drainage; the pastures especiilly 

 were wet, cold, and unproductive ; it was land upon which no 

 sheep had been kept except some two or three score iu the 

 summer months, and it was considered the soil was uusuited 

 for sheep ; it was considered mailness to institute sheep, not- 

 withstanding we established a flock of 25 score, or ,500 ewes. 

 We at once drained both plough and pasture, adopted autumnal 

 cultivation, put aside the bare fallow system, cultivated man- 

 gold wurtzels and swede?, and we have since been able to rear 

 650 lambs annually, to fatten out an average of 40 beasts, to 

 rear an average of 30 yo\)ug beasts, to fatten an average of 10 

 score of sheep, to keep 15 cows, 15 colts of dilTerent a^es, and 

 30 horses, and an average run of pigs. Now, I consider there 

 is nothing extraordinary iu this, though clay land, and although 

 at the commencement much out of condition ; but the secret 

 has been large and increasing breadths of mangold wurtzels, 

 till this year, upon the four-course system, «e have extended 

 the breadth to a hundred acres, which at an average of 30 tons 

 per acre equals 3,000 tons of good valuable food ; and in our 

 eastern counties exceeds by one-third the produce of swedes, 

 and the mangold wurtzels have superior fattening qualities. 

 Independently of our permanent course in keeping a flock of 

 breeding ewes, we have varied our system of grazing, generally 

 buying calves, tearing and fnttening them for sale at two years 

 old ; but if beasts in good fresh condition have promised to he 

 beneath the value at which we could rear them, we have then 

 purchased beasts in the autumn, or in the spring, when partially 

 fattened ; or if beasts have been dear, and sheep proportion- 

 ately cheaper, we have then fattened sheep in yards instead of 

 beasts. We have endeavoured to carry out the principle of 

 buying the most paying article in the cheapest market, and to 

 secure the largest amount of profit. After every trial we pro- 

 nounce greatly iu favour of the flock of 500 ewes, as the most 

 paying; and from the improved condition of the land, the 

 number of ewes might now be advantageously increased from 

 25 to 40 scores ; and I believe such an increase of the flock to 

 be the best remedy against the present depression iu the price 

 of wheat. Last year the produce of the 500 ewes realized, for 

 600 lambs sold in August, £884; 61 tods of wool, £144; 

 total, £1,028 which exceeds the rental value of the land. This 

 year the produce of the flock, viz., 650 lambs, and 60 tods of 

 wool, which realized £970 ; and in other years the return has 

 been in the same ratio. We have gradually been substituting 

 Hampshire ewes for Southdown ewes; and we have crossed 

 either with Cotswold tups, hired of Mr. Sexton, of Earl's Hall, 

 Cockfield, Suffolk. We have fiuud that rautfon and wool 

 answers infinitely better than breeding and blood. Size and 

 frame are necessary for early maturity, and we have no no- 

 tion of small prttty lambs, which cannot command a ready 

 purchaser. We made trial of some pure bred lambs, by se- 

 lecting a few of the beat Southdown ewes, and placing with 

 them Southdown tups hired from the best flocks, but the pro- 



geny were very unpayiag, even allowing that they consumed 

 less food when compared with the lambs of the first cross. 

 The SouthJowns are, undoubtedly, admirably adapted for 

 dowulftud and a short herbage, but not for the soil or the sys- 

 tem which we have pursued. In the maiiagement of the flock, 

 from the ewes being the scavengers of the farm, they are kept 

 inexpensively ; but they are always raaintnined in a Bound, 

 healthy, thriving condition ; and one main point is, to have 

 tl'.cm npou the arable land as much as possible, because of 

 the manure, but never at a wet or improper time. Iu 

 October the ewes are pUiccd iu different Iota upon the 

 maiden layers and atubblea generally, whilst the tupp iig 

 is going on ; also upon the mangold wurtzel tops, after the 

 roots have been carted. In November they have the swede 

 tops, perhaps a piece of rape, also the pick of the old grass 

 on the pastures, and, as tlie weather become i wet and 

 cold, they are taken to two good, roomy, well-drained, well- 

 shedded yards, where they receive cut barley, oat, pea, 

 hem, or wheat straw iu troughs, also a supply of any clean, 

 fresh-thrashed straw, placed between hurdles, or in racks, from 

 which they eat the straw most fieely. I have been astonished 

 at the amount they will daily consume. Those yards become 

 their winter quarters. They are littered with straw as neces- 

 sary ; and I have always noticed in coarse, wet weather, upou 

 entering the yards early iu the morning, that every sheep ia 

 under cover in the sheJs, which simply proves that they are as 

 great lovers of comfort and warmth as the human or any other 

 animal. Wc adhere to the yards iu the winter ; as ewes folded 

 at night upon a bleak field, exposed to severe frosts, cold cut- 

 ting winds, raiu, sleet, and snow, are in a poor position for 

 progress ; and we prefer to cart the manure to the field in a 

 dry season, rather than to deposit it there under such nnfa- 

 vourable circumstances to the aiiiraal and to the soil. Each 

 day the ewes have gentle exercise, or a free ramble upon an 

 adjoining pasture, where they receive an allowance of 100 

 bushels of swedes or mangold wurtzel per diem. This treat- 

 meat is continued till within a month or five weeks of lambing, 

 when a few bushels of crushed rapecake are daily added to the 

 straw chaff, which cake we consider may advantageously be 

 passed through the animal instead of applying it direct for a 

 grain crop to the soil. The rapecake is always eagerly con- 

 sumed; and even such inexpensive artificial food is very bene- 

 ficial ia preventing too fjreat a reduction in the condition of 

 the ewes prior to parturition. About three acres of cow cab- 

 bage are grown, some of which are given to the ewes 10 days 

 previous to lambing, or they have a small bait upon aftermath 

 grass, which assists to ease in parturition, and secures a flow 

 of milk. After lambing, the ewes are placed with the Iambs 

 upon a piece of aftermath grass, which has been reserved, 

 wliere they receive mangold wurtzels and cabbages, and return 

 to tlie yards at night for r.ipecake and cut roots with straw 

 chaff, till the weather becomes sufficiently warm for the lamba 

 to sleep out, which is not usually till April. The lambs are 

 allowed cabljages, and a small supply of beau meal and rape 

 or oil cake, apart from the ewes. In May or June the flock of 

 ewes and lambs receive mangold wurtzels upon the rye or rye 

 grass or pasture, the lambs running forward for the best feed ; 

 after which, in July, the lambs are weaned, and placed upon 

 good clover or pasture, where they continue to receive a small 

 supply of artificial food, and are sold usually at thecommence- 

 meut of August. After weaning the lambs, the refuse ewes 

 are withdrawn and fattened ; whilst the flock ewes are shifted 

 to inferior food, and gradually prepared for the following tup- 

 ping season ; they are allowed a fold of tares or rape, or second 

 crop of clover, in August and September; and have the run of 

 some pastures, also the stubbles, after harvest. Now the 

 advantages of the system are these — the ewes are treated as 

 the refuse consumers of the farm ; they are kept in a healthy 

 condition, but they are kept inexpensively. They subsist in the 

 autumn upon the stubble feed and root tops mainly ; upon straw 

 chaff and straw, and a small portion of roots, in the winter ; in 

 the spring they consume straw largely, with rapecake and 

 roots ; and in the summer months green food is plentiful. 

 The return is, as I have shown, nearly £1,000 per annum, 

 which will allow of some expense in the giving artificial food 

 to lambs ; and such a system of lamb-feeding answers admi- 

 rably. I can observe, that it not only improves the lambs 

 generally, but it prevents a number of refuse lambs, which 

 usually make but a poor return. I think food thus given pays 

 10 per cent, beyond the improved value of the manure. I can 

 find, further, by having the ewes off the land iu the wet weathet 



