Ch. XXXIX.] ON FATTIxVG SHEEP, 489 



Of late years it lias become much the practice to fatten sheep by 

 soiling them during summer with various artificial grasses, and if not ready 

 for the market at the close of the season, they are then finished off with 

 Swedish turnips* ; or, if not, with hay and oil-cake. Nothing-, indeed, 

 generally used in the fatting of cattle, or sheep, has a greater] effect upon 

 the increase of flesh than oil-cake ; for even if fed upon turnips, 1 lb. of 

 oil-cake per day has been found more profitable, when purchased at 8/. 

 per ton, than turnips at 4/. per acre f : but, if not used with great modera- 

 tion, it imparts an oily softness as well as a yellow tinge to the fat, and to 

 delicate appetites gives an unpleasant flavour to the lean. In fact, it may 

 be assumed as an axiom, that the nature of the food greatly affects the 

 quality and savour of the meat. " If the large sheep of this country were 

 taken to the Welsh or Scotch mountains, if they could obtain their food 

 with ease, and take their natural rest, the flavour of the mutton would no 

 doubt be finer in proportion ; as the native sheep of those countries 

 deteriorate in flavour when fed on the coarse grasses of this country |." 

 Hay, or straw, should, however, be always given to promote digestion, 

 with whatever roots they may chiefly be fed upon § ; and if sufficient of 

 these be given — whether mangel-wurzel, cabbages, Swedes, carrots, or 

 parsnips — their progress will be found nearly equal : but if these be all 

 grown upon the farm, the occasional change of diet will materially improve 

 them. Parsnips, from all we have heard, we believe to be not onlv emi- 

 nently nutritive, but caj)able of materially improving the flavour of the meat. 



Potatoes would also, no doubt, have much the same effect in point of 

 nourishment ; but, if used with advantage, it is generally thought they 

 should be steamed, which is a trouble that few farmers will be inclined to 

 take, for, if the sheep be not housed, there would be great difficulty in 

 feeding them with prepared food in the field : they have, however, been 

 used raw to a great extent with very considerable advantage. A good 

 mode of giving them is to take the sheep in the depth of winter into the 

 fold-yard, where the potatoes are cut into slices and placed in troughs under 



however, suggests that, instead of iisinrr any of these materials singly in conjunction 

 witli sugar, that a mixture should he substituted consisting of 1 lb. of palm-oil, 1 lb. of 

 train-oil, 2 lbs. of urine, 2 oz. of emetic tartar, 24 gis. of iissafoetlda, 28 drops of oil of 

 hartshorn, together with 1 cwt. of sugar; since iri this composition are comprised an 

 animal, a vegetable, and an empyreumatic oil, a substance containing ammoniacal and 

 ether salts, metallic calx, and a resinous gmu ; the whole expense of which, he states, 

 ■would be trifling. 



On the 22nd of October, the sheep were takin into the house and kept upon dry 

 food without sugar until the 2nd of November, aiul divided into three classes : one 

 being 6 oz. of sugar per day ; another 4 oz. ; and the third class none. Bran, ])eas, 

 and hay were given to all, and they v/eie weighed every week duiing a fortnight. Their 

 increase of weight, however — owing, as it was suppostd. to their confinement — was very 

 trifling. The progress of those which had no sugar at all was rather more than those 

 which had 6 oz. a day, and the advantage was in favour of those which had the 4 oz. 



* When turnips are so drawn, it is a good plan to keep them for a day or two, in 

 order to allow some of their watery juices to evaporate; by which means they will 

 become more wholesome and nutritive. 



■\- Lincoln Report, 2nd edition, p. 418. 



X Kussell, on Pract. and Chem. Agric , p. 2?5. 



§ The dry food being only intended to assist the digestive organs, and to correct the 

 watery propeities of the turnip, straw, as being the most economiciil, may be used with 

 perhaps more advantage than hay. i\Ir. Russell, of Warwickshire, indeed, says — 

 " That he never found his sheep to thrive so fast on any other food as on Swede turnips 

 with a little fresh-threshed barlej- straw, to pick at as their inclinations led them. AVhen 

 he gave thtm good green hay instead of straw, they ate more hay and less turnips, and 

 the consequence was, they did not thrive so fast ; the larger the proportion of turnips 

 ■which they consumed in a given time, the quicker they became fat." — Treatise on 

 Practical and Chemical Agriculture, p. 242. 



