CATTLE AND SHEEP. 41 



declares hay to be superfluous, and that the object may 

 be attained by the " corpus vile " of straw. So in roots : 

 mangold-wurzel has its enthusiastic advocates, and equally 

 so parsnips, carrots white and red, cabbage, and swede 

 turnips respectively. And, again, in the cerealia and their 

 congeners ; men of nice observation discriminate between 

 the beneficial effects of each : some by chemical analysis ; 

 some by the Baconian process of induction ; and the result 

 is, that meals of every description barley neat and barley 

 malted, grains, linseed, oil and oil-cake are accepted and 

 rejected with most perplexing confusion. We really 

 wonder that those who feed by book do not throw up the 

 case in despair. We should be as unwilling to decide 

 these points on the conflicting testimony of the corre- 

 spondents of agricultural journals as we should to give a 

 verdict on the evidence of Irish witnesses. The contro- 

 versies will generally be best settled by a reference to 

 local facilities. Gorse is good where you have poor and 

 congenial land and ready access to a water-wheel or steam- 

 engine to crush it effectually. Grains are good where 

 you are near a large brewery and can buy them at or 

 under 4d. per bushel. Hay is good where you have 

 meadows which are effectually manured by some river or 

 stream ; and you may, or perhaps you must, make straw 

 an article of diet to your feeding-cattle, where hay would 

 cost you 3/. per ton. W T e believe that 10s. per ton would 

 more than balance the feeding-value of any two sorts of 

 meal. Where a stall-feeder has on his premises the 

 means of grinding or crushing, there can be no doubt as 

 to the economy of consuming by his cattle any sort of 

 unmarketable corn. Where he is distant from a mill, it 

 may be economy to give it whole. We do not think that 

 the controversy between barley and malt is ripe for decision. 

 As to roots : if you are so fortunate as to occupy a deep 

 dry loam, you may grow parsnips or carrots, or anything 

 else short of tropical exotics ; but beware of them on the 

 sharp gravels or shallow sands, from which, by a plentiful 



