Sheep versus Cattle. 557 



altogetlier; antl the same remark applied to the lambs. The desir- 

 ableness ojf keeping breeding ewes in a yard, and tiu'ning tbem out for 

 a portion of the day, giving them pulped roots mixed with straw and 

 diy meat, was, he should imagine, tested to some extent last winter ; 

 and, for his own part, he thought that would lead to a solution of the 

 difficulty of keeping a breeding flock on strong land where there was 

 very little grass. On his farm he had never foimd any superfluity of 

 straw, while at times he could certainly have used more than he 

 had with advantage. As regarded cart-laorses, he never thought of 

 tiu-ning them out to grass, and he believed that that was one of the 

 greatest mistakes a farmer could make, as nothing scarcely did grass- 

 land so mtich harm. There were constant battles and arguments with 

 farmers on that subject. They said that tares were very expensive to 

 grow, but he did not himself believe that. His plan was very much 

 the same as that which Mr. Torr had spoken of; he gave chopped 

 straw all the winter, open straw as long as he had any, and at this 

 time of year plenty of tares and an allowance of corn and chopped 

 dry meat. 



Sir George Jenkixson remarked that that plan could not be carried 

 out with young horses. 



Mr. Torr : Yes, it is just the same thing. 



Mr. Dent continued : He was speaking only of farm-horses. He 

 had always considered sheep and bullocks far preferable to horses as 

 stock. To have hoggets carrying on their back fleeces which could 

 be got rid of at the end of the year was far better than having horses 

 from which no profit could be got imtil they were three or four years 

 old. As regarded Mr. Terr's idea of using chaflf on grass lands, he 

 had seen a little of that tried with very good results. Almost any- 

 thing, in fact, that was put on grass lands woidd do good. But 

 he did not himself see any great objection to allowing straw to be 

 sold, provided the landlord saw that compensation was made in the 

 manm-e that was purchased. He thought that on the class of farms 

 where there was a sujierfluity of straw, and the landlord might be 

 satisfied that there was a sufficient quantity of good linseed-cake 

 or good artificial manure bought to rejdace the straw, the sale of 

 straw was not so objectionable as some landlords and some land- 

 agents had seemed to think, especially in the neighboiu-hood of towns, 

 where straw fetched a high price. 



What was read by Mr. Torr respecting Mr. Eandall's management 

 of sheep was very valuable; and he (Mr. Dent) was sm'prised that, 

 after the system was placed before the members of the Society 

 by Mr. Randall himself, it was not carried further by the strong 

 land farmers than it had been hitherto. He would throw out a 

 suggestion whether they might not keep an increased quantity of 

 both cattle and sheep, by keeping cattle in the smiimer in yards, 

 and so freeing the grass lands for the ewes and lambs. As to the 

 difficulty of keeping lambs on grass lands in winter, he would remark 

 that he had seen some lambs in that position and receiving cotton- 

 cake, and, though there had been very few losses when he left 

 the country, the result did not appear to him satisfactory. The 



