THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



367 



at«nd thus— Profit on cue bullock, £1 lOa. ; profit on six sheep, 

 which have consumed the same amount of food, and made the 

 same amount of manure, £3 I83. Excess of profit oa account of 

 sheep, all other things being equal, £2 83. The sheep calcu- 

 lations are all based upon the figures contained in the tables 

 to which I have just invited your attention, where jt appears 

 that 377 sheep paid £244 IQa. l^d. for the natural food con- 

 sumed in the yards, including all losses. This year I have, 

 as before stated, upwards of 600 sheep in the yards. To sim- 

 pUfy the matter, suppose I say I have 600 exactly ; these are 

 consuming the food and making the manure that 100 bullocks 

 would consume and make. Taking £1 lOs. as the profit per 

 head on 100 bullock?, and £3 IBs. the profit on six sheep— and 

 I think the latter is quite as likely to be realized this year as 

 the former, and indeed more so— what is my position then ? 

 Why, instead of getting £150 for the food consumed by 100 

 bullocks, for the very same food consumed by,600 sheep, I get 

 £390 ; which simply puts .i'240 into my pocket, and em- 

 boldens me to stand here, and argue in favour of sheep as 

 manure manufacturers. There is is just one other argument 

 I would adduce, which appears to strengthen the case in 

 favour of sheep, so far as the fens are concerned. A brief 

 allusion to it will suffice. It is this — Our fen soils appear 

 naturally more adapted for sheep than bullocks. Coleseed, 

 which grows very freely upon them, is very fattening, and 

 perhaps there is no vegetable fooJ that sheep can consume 

 that will give them so much firmness of hand, and so large an 

 increase of weight in a given time, as good fen-land coleseed. 

 It is incredible how rapidly sheep will sometimes get iat upon 

 it. Clover and ryegrass, the common herbage on a fen farm, 

 is far more suited to sheep than bullocks. Sheep, with an 

 occasional change, will thrive well, and upon clover eddishes 

 will get good mutton, especially if a small quantity of cake is 

 given to them Bullocks do not generally thrive well on our fen 

 lands, and unless they have frequent change to high lands, 

 they will soon become diseased and unhealthy. A long con- 

 tinuance on these lauds, and with no food but what the farm 

 produces, is almost sure to result in ulcers, and a consequent 

 wasting of condition. Before the introduction of linseed cake, 

 ulcerated bullocks were far more common in the fens than now. 

 But this, although tending to mitigate, does not prevent the 

 disease ; and we have every year ample evidence to convince 

 us that fen land is not healthy for bullocks. We have plenty 

 of land that will feed a sheep, that, if it will not starve, will 

 do very little to mend a bullock. It seems only fair then to 

 assume that as the herbage on these lands — i. e., the rye grass 

 and clover — in its green and growing state, is so much better 

 food for sheep than for bullocks, that the same herbage, when 

 mown and made into hay, should retain the same superiority 

 and fitness for sheep over bullocks. I cannot see that drying 

 up its juices by the summer's sun will in any way alter its dis- 

 tinctive peculiarities ; and further, it seems equally fair to 

 assume that mangolds grown upon land which in every sense 

 is better suited for sheep than bullocks, should themselves 

 also be better food for the former than for the latter. Doubt- 

 less it is so, and goes, in my own immediate neighbourhood, 

 as indeed in all others where similar testimony may be borne, 

 to strengthen the case in favour of sheep, and is another 

 argument for employing them as manure manufacturers. 

 From the tables given in another part of this paper it will 

 be seen that the cost for artificial food for my sheep last 

 year was small, the whole 377 only consuming what cost 

 £37 158. l^d. But, of course, this was quite optional. I 



wanted my sheep for a certain purpose, and I kept them ac. 

 cordingly. From the yards they went upon some old pasture 

 land, and in July upon clover and Timothy-grass eddjshes, and 

 in August and September to coleseed. They went to market 

 from September to the end of the year, and made about 55s. 

 to 56s. per head, leaving 15s. to 163. per head for wool be- 

 sides, being a total of 21s. or 228. per head for summering. 

 Where it is an object of great importance to make the ma- 

 nure of very superior quality, of course more artificial food 

 must be given. This may be exactly regulated to meet the 

 requirements of any and every case, without in any way inter- 

 fering with the principle I am discussing. I sow all my /e?i 

 oats, as well as my green crops, with artificial manure and the 

 water drill, and also on my coleseeds and grass seeds give my 

 sheep cake. This leads me to manufacture my yard manure 

 at rather less cost; but this is not a point worth arguing — 

 every man has his own ideas as to what bis own farm requires' 

 and whether he employs sheep or bullocks to make his ma- 

 nure, he gives them cake or corn accordingly ; and, as I have 

 just intimated, the principle remains the same, whether 

 larger or smaller amounts of purchased foods be given. 

 In an early part of this paper I referred to an objection 

 which had been raised against sheep as manure manufacturers, 

 viz., that the manure made by these would be inferior in qua- 

 lity to that made by bullocks. I looked closely into this to 

 see, as far as appearances and observation would enable me, if 

 these things really were so. I confess I have hitherto been 

 unable to detect any such inferiority. It was a question, how- 

 ever, of such serious import that I considered and re-considerei 

 it, and did my utmost to ascertain if there could be any sem- 

 blance of truth in it. 1 could not comprehend how it could 

 he that, all things being equal, manure from the one animal 

 should be so inferior to that from the other. The more I re- 

 flected upon the subject, the more perplexed I became, and the 

 more sensibly felt my inadequacy to grapple fully with it. 

 Reflection only produced a consciousness that the question 

 was beyond my reach, and required a loftier knowledge than I 

 had yet attained to satisfaetorily explain it. It was evi- 

 dently a question for chemistry to determine ; so I resolved to 

 make an immediate application to Mr. Lawes, knowing that he 

 had devoted much time and attention to experiments of this 

 nature, and feeling assured that any opinions expressed by 

 him with reference thereto might be adopted. I accordingly 

 stated my case, and in the following words you have his reply : 

 ' In answer to your questions, I have no reason to suppose, 

 that the manure from sheep or bullocks eating equal quan- 

 tities and quality of food would differ in value, and you will be 

 quite justified in assuming that the quality of the manure de- 

 pends upon the food consumed, irrespective of the animal." 

 This appeared quite satisfactcrj', and accorded wiih my own 

 experience, so far as such experience enabled me to form an 

 opinion , and just removed the last little hovering doubt that dis- 

 turbed my peace, as it every now and then prompted the fear that 

 my manure might not be so good as if it had been made by bul- 

 locks. When I accepted the invitation of the committee, to pre- 

 pare a paper on the subject, to which your attention has been 

 this evening invited, I felt it important that some other testi- 

 mony than my own should be presented. I therefore applied 

 to two or three gentlemen, who I believed could furnish facta 

 that would be both interesting and instructive, and would re- 

 veal how far, in other localities than my own, the system of 

 manufacturing manure by sheep had found favour, and bad 

 proved successful. Through the kindness of Mr. James 



