164 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



comfortable is needed, and for this purpose nothing is more 

 suitable than hay. Clover hay is too rich in albuminoids to 

 commence with, and besides, it is policy to cut into the inferior 

 ricks first, and to reserve the best hay for finishing with in 

 spring. Meadow hay and white turnips will be gradually 

 changed for clover hay and swedes after Christmas. The 

 lower temperature which will then prevail, and the more 

 matured constitution of the sheep will at that time be favour- 

 able for the introduction of food of a more nutritious character. 

 The differences in composition between these classes of roots 

 and hay are very great, and a diet of white turnips and 

 meadow hay is very different from one of swedes and clover 

 hay. Swedes and clover hay are highly nutritious and heating, 

 while meadow hay and white turnips, being poorer in albu- 

 minoids, are less heating to the system and easier of digestion. 



DRY FOOD. 



Too much stress can scarcely be laid upon the paramount 

 importance of plenty of dry food for sheep. 



Turnips are too watery for winter feeding when used alone. 

 Grass is also watery, but the circumstances under which it is 

 consumed are so different that its high percentage of moisture 

 is not injurious. 



It has been the habit of writers to decry turnips as con- 

 sisting largely of water. It must, however, be remembered 

 that all succulent and luscious vegetable growth is watery, 

 and that even the animal body consists principally of water. 

 Nature's most perfect food for stock contains over 80 per cent, 

 of water, and yet no combination of artificial foods has yet 

 been contrived to rival young grass. It is, however, the 

 misfortune of the turnip to contain an excess of moisture and 

 to be fed at a time of year when the very mention of cold 

 water seems to send a shudder down the spine. 



To awake on a piercingly cold morning on a bleak hill-side, 

 and to partake of a breakfast of "ices" for such would be 



