during the last Four Years. 207 



is sometimes a great loss of manure when made by sheep on the 

 land. In dry weather^ when the ground is hard, either from heat 

 or frost, a portion of it evaporates rapidly ; in wet weather, on 

 light lands, I doubt if it be not sometimes washed downwards 

 below the reach of the following crop. The change, however, 

 would be so great that it would be unwise to make it at once ; 

 and, indeed, we require some further experience of its effects 

 on the health of the sheep. "^ 



There is another principle in Mr. Childers's concise paper, 

 scarcely, if at all, less important than that of shed-feeding, which 

 I confess had escaped me altogether, until it was ably pointed 

 out by the Rev. Mr. Thorp, in a papery read by him before " The 

 Yorkshire Society." That principle is rapid feeding. The usual 

 course, I believe, in feeding sheep, is to keep them about four 

 months upon turnips, increasing the additional food, such as corn 

 and cake, towards the end of the period ; but Mr. Childers pro- 

 poses to feed them to the utmost from the very first. " I think," 

 he says, "the greatest profit would be made by shedding them for 

 about ten weeks. By giving them cake and a little crushed barley 

 I think you may gain from 33 to 40 lbs. per head in that time ; 

 their increase in value during that time cannot be less than 15s. 

 to 20s. per head ; and in this v/ay you may feed off two or three 

 lots during the winter. In ten weeks they consume half a ton of 

 turnips each. Thus, with artificial food, an acre of 30 tons will 

 feed no less than 60 sheep. The artificial food will cost from 

 6c?. to Is. each per week." 



This would not be exactly a saving of food, as in shed-feedinsf, 

 but a substitution of other and expensive food for so many 

 turnips, and the further question must be asked whether this 

 substitution will pay. Assuming Mr. Childers's figures to be 

 correct, that 15s. are added to the value of the sheep, and that 

 the additional food costs about 9c?. a week for ten weeks, there 

 would be left 7s. 6d. for the half ton of turnips, which would be 

 enough. The outlay on extra food is large ; but then the return 

 would take place in a shorter period, namely, ten weeks, when 

 the money would come back, and a fresh purchase be made. If 

 the system would pay, it is self-evident that a vast increase of the 

 best manure, the whole object of all feeding, would be obtained; 

 and though it is somewhat startling to hear of 60 sheep being 

 fattened on a single acre of turnips, still it would be worth 

 doing, and ought to be done for the sake of the public, if it can 



* Mr. Thompson, of Kirby, has just informed me that shearlings bear 

 shedding better than lambs, and that one farmer who tried shedding last 

 year had considerable loss by purging; he therefore recommends that the 

 back of the shed should be made of open wattle, or that moveable sheds 

 should be used in the field. 



t On the Feeding of Sheep— Supplement of this Number. 



