l66 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



and sends up prices. In the meantime we are put to shifts 

 of various kinds. We, for example, are obliged to feed grass 

 which ought to be reserved for mowing. We are compelled 

 to stock our spring fodder crops before they reach perfection, 

 and our rye, winter barley, trifolium and vetches are in turn 

 invaded before they have attained half their growth. Over- 

 stocking empties the exchequer, by reason of the hay and 

 cake bills which accrue from it, and the farmer is in a state of 

 chronic discontent and anxiety, waiting for growing weather. 

 The evils of overstocking are not confined to a protracted 

 shortness of victuals. They are seen in an increased mor- 

 tality, a prevalence of scour, and a dryness of coat, and want 

 of bloom among lambs. In long-woolled flocks it results, at 

 length, in loss of size and frame in the ewe flock. Such are 

 the evils of overstocking with sheep. 



We should, therefore, endeavour to keep within bounds as 

 to the number of sheep, and at the same time arrange our 

 cropping so as to give an abundance of victuals throughout 

 the entire year. 



The foods principally relied upon during the winter are 

 turnips, swedes, mangels, clover and meadow hay, peas- 

 straw, oat and barley straw. These may be called the 

 natural foods produced on the farm, and a few words upon 

 each of them may not be out of place. 



TURNIPS 



are usually stated to be insufficient for fatting purposes. It has, 

 in fact, been declared that sheep cannot be fattened on turnips 

 alone. It must be allowed that the experiment is never strictly 

 made in practice, because some sort of dry food is always given. 

 I have, however, seen sheep do remarkably well upon turnips, 

 and Mr. Clement Cadle, of Gloucester, who I regarded as an 

 eminently practical authority on farming, told me that he had 

 seen them fatted on turnips and little else. Turnips and 

 straw are capable of keeping sheep in good condition, and so 



