370 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Mr. J. CoLEWAN(Park P'arm, Woburn),8aidMr. Ruston 

 had told tliem that he had found sheep far preferable to bul- 

 locks. He agreed with him, for this reason — that sheep 

 would produce a large amount of wool where bullocks pro- 

 duced nothing of corresponding value. But the question 

 for heavy-land farmers to consider was whether sheep could 

 he kept in yards in the same manner as cattle were now. 

 On a large and extensive scale he had had little to do with 

 the feeding of sheep in yards; but for the Baker-street, Bir- 

 mingham, and summer shows, he had had something to do 

 with a few fancy things; and it had always been a trouble 

 to him to keep them in a proper state, even when feeding 

 them as high as possible. In following Mr. Ruston's ex- 

 ample, great care would be required to save sheep from foot- 

 rot. If the sheep were driven out, and had a fresh layer of 

 straw two or three times a day, they might be profitable ; 

 but would other farmers take the same pains in that res- 

 pect that Mr. Ruston had .^ (Hear, hear.) If not, they 

 must not expect to obtain the same return. He knew many 

 men who bought cattle, turned them into a yard, and for 

 months, perhaps, made no variation in the quantity of 

 food or manner of feeding. That system would not do, 

 if sheep were substituted for cattle. In his comparisou 

 between the paying properties of cattle and sheep, Mr. 

 Ruston had presented the dark side of one question and 

 the bright side of the other, putting an extraordinarily low 

 price on cattle, and an extraordinarily high one on sheep. 

 He had supposed that the fen farmers were in the habit of 

 buying a very good description of oxen. But as he knew 

 some of the men who were now feeding sheep instead 

 of cattle, he was well aware of the class of animals 

 they bought. When farmers in his district wanted to 

 graze and feed cattle, they got the best they could ; and if 

 the fen farmers and others who kept store cattle would buy 

 the veriest rubbish — he did not mean to say that Mr. Rus- 

 ton did that (laughter)— how could they expect to be paid? 

 If they purchased such cattle as were found in North 

 Lincolaabire, at £12 to £13, those animals would pay 

 well for wintering. He was glad that Mr. Ruston could make 

 out that sheep paid. They all wanted, of course, to pro- 

 duce what would be most profitable to them. No doubt 

 sheep would pay more for the same amount of food than 

 cattle. Could they, as heavy-land farmers, keep a large 

 quantity of sheep ? Provided they took the same care and 

 were as particular as Mr. Ruston, they could ; and he 

 thought no one would be so simple as not to try it, if he 

 believed there was all this profit to be made. Mr. Ruston 

 stated that roots produced on fen land were not in any de- 

 gree fattening. He could scarcely agree with him. That 

 his roots were not so fattening as those on the best lands in 

 the neighbourood of Boston, and those on the rich land of 

 Mr. Heath in Norfolk, he would allow; but if his sheep 

 could do well with the small amount of artificial food named, 

 there must be more in his roots than he (Mr. R.) gave them 

 credit for. It was a question whether by keeping store beasts 

 and using more artificial food he would not obtain as great a 

 profit as he had derived from sheep. He thanked Mr. 

 Ruston most heartily for the able paper which he had read. 

 No one could doubt that there must be some truth at the 

 bottom of what he had laid before them ; but if they ex- 

 pected to be as well paid for keeping sheep as Mr. Ruston 

 had been, they would, he believed, be disappointed. He 

 thought the general tendency among farmers now-a-day^ 



was to keep as many sheep as they could, and to consume 

 with them as much as possible of root and straw crops. 



Mr. Fisher Hobbs said, as an Essex farmer, lie could bear 

 testimony to the great value of the paper read by IMr. Rus- 

 ton, The question was not of that limited and restricted 

 character which that gentleman implied at the commence- 

 ment of his remarks, but it was one of great imporlauce 

 at the present time. With regard to farmers generally, it 

 might be said that during the last two or three years the 

 grazing of cattle had not been very proStable. The Duke 

 of Bedford's farm steward spoke of wool in connection with 

 bheep. That article, it should be remembered, was every 

 year becoming of greater value and importance to tlie 

 manufacturing interests of ihis country. He ( Blr. Hobbs) 

 had had considerable experience in the yarding of bheep for 

 a long period. During his early dajs he saw that sys- 

 tem carried out by the late Lord Western with a breed of 

 sheep, which, owing to the character of their feet, were less 

 qualified to bear the manure than many other breeds of 

 sheep. This led bim to observe that there was one material 

 point in the management of sheep in fold-yards, which was 

 not generally understood by the farmers of this country — it 

 was that sheep should be littered, and thinly littered, at least 

 twice a-day. Attending to that, and never allowing manure to 

 ferment, he had not found any difficulty in keeping sheep in 

 jar Is. There was one important point on which Mr, Rus- 

 ton did not touch. Many persons who put sheep in yards 

 turned them into yards where the sheds were very wide, and 

 more fit for beas(s than for sheep ; the consequence being 

 that the manure heated, and the sheep were in great danger 

 of beco-ning lame. He though'; the yarding of sheep, with 

 the allotment of four square yards to each sheep would 

 enable farmers to keep double the quantity of sheep, and 

 to employ double the capital for the consumption of roots, 

 that they now did on many heavy land farms. In the county 

 of Essex the losses of farmers amongst their cattle from 

 pleuro-pneumonia had been very heavy. He would con- 

 cede to Mr. Coleman that this might be attributable in 

 some degree to their not selecting the best animals ; but 

 the farmers in his part of England had not the same 

 opportunity of going into the breeding counties, and 

 selecting animals from the large grazing districts. By the 

 time cattle from the breeding districts arrived in Essex, 

 Kent, and Sussex, they had been driven from fair to fair- 

 they had been heated by travelling on railways, and they 

 had those seeds of disease sown in them which occasioned 

 frequently a great loss to the farmer. He hoped the 

 subject would be extensively discussed that evening. He 

 believed that if sheep were substituted for beasts to a con- 

 siderable extent in the heavy-land districts, provided par- 

 ticular attention was paid to the littering yards, and to the 

 trimming and dressing of the feet when disease showed 

 itself, the result would be satisfactory. But the question 

 did not stop there. There were many poor parts of the 

 countrj', such, for example, as the chalk hills of Surrey, 

 where cattle could not be advantageously grazed in summer, 

 and where sheep would be most advantageously fed in 

 fields and yards iu winter. He thought that in the grazing 

 districts, where no cattle could be advantageously grazed 

 in summer (he spoke especially of his own county, where 

 they had but little grass land of much value for grazing), 

 farmers would be glad to substitute sheep for beasts, if it 

 could be proved satisfactorily that sheep would convert 



