THE MANAGEMENT OF EWES UP TO LAMBING. 253 



the animals dry food, and there was no more shivering." 

 Since 1863 we have had several winters in which the roots 

 were so deficient that flocks had to be kept without such 

 food. 



The winter of 1864, when the roots were generally destroyed 

 by the severity of the weather, afforded valuable experience 

 as to the possibility of keeping ewes alive and flourishing upon 

 a minimum quantity of roots. We inspected a flock of Hamp- 

 shire Down ewes that did not get a root before lambing. They 

 ran at large on grass land during the day, and were folded at 

 nights, so as to improve the pasture. Morning and night they 

 got trough food, consisting of straw and hay chaff — two- 

 thirds of the former to one-third of the latter — with a mixture 

 of bruised oats and palm-nut meal ; the outlay for artificial food 

 reaching 2|cZ. a head weekly. We inspected the flock j^revious 

 to lambing, and we never saw animals in a more promising con- 

 dition : not one died during the winter. Again, in 1868-9, 

 we had no turnips, and good managers learnt to keep their 

 flocks in healthy condition. Last year (1886) in the southern 

 counties the turnip crop was a failure, yet sheep were kept in a 

 thriving state by straw and hay, with a moderate allowance of 

 artificial food. 



Mr. J. C. Morton, in an interesting paper published in the 

 27th volume of the "Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society,'* 

 entitled "Some of the Agricultural Lessons of 1868," details 

 the experience of many leading breeders as to the possibility of 

 wintering ewes without root crops ; for in that disastrous season 

 there were none to use. And it is hoped that the lessons then 

 learnt have not been forgotten. 



One cannot, however, travel through the country without 

 noticing the want of systematic management which too fre- 

 quently prevails, and therefore, at the risk of being styled 

 monotonous, we reproduce the arguments and evidence then 

 introduced into the lecture which has been alluded to, in refer- 

 ence to the value and economy of using dry food, and especially 

 straw, for breeding ewes. The two points we propose to illus- 

 trate are the effect on the manure and on the animal. First, as 

 to the land. An acre of turnips will, on an average, weigh 

 about 15 tons, yielding in the manure made therefrom 741b. of 



