l68 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



MANGELS. 



My attention has lately been called to the fact that mangels 

 cannot be safely given in quantity to wether sheep. They 

 appear to have an injurious effect upon the bladder and 

 urinary organs, and in many parts of the country flock- 

 masters dare not use them for wethers, although they may be 

 given to female sheep. On this point of practice I may say 

 that mangel is relied upon as a change of food for ram lambs 

 in the great sheep-breeding district of Wilts and South Hants. 

 The roots are either cut into troughs or thrown about upon 

 vetches or rape as a change, but the lambs have at that 

 season so large a variety of food in the shape of green fodder, 

 that no evil consequences follow. Ram breeders would find 

 it difficult to do without mangels in the hot months, and shep- 

 herds may be seen in our showyards slicing mangels and 

 giving them with cabbage and rape to rams. 



HAY. 



It would be thought extravagant in the north of England to 

 give hay to sheep. There a smaller amount is made, and 

 that chiefly for horses. Experiments upon the powers of 

 digestion of our domestic animals have proved favourable to 

 the use of hay for sheep, and in the great sheep-farming 

 districts of the chalk and oolites, shepherds would feel sadly 

 aggrieved if hay were withheld. Horses, and even cows, are 

 made to live on straw before the flock, which becomes the 

 great consumer of hay. The best descriptions for sheep are 

 clover and sainfoin hay, and the best method of feeding is in 

 the form of chaff. It is cut up by means of powerful three- 

 knife chaff-cutters, worked by steam, and furnished with 

 screens for separating the dust. In these machines the pro- 

 duct is delivered into quarter bags, which are carted to the 

 field and emptied into troughs. The chaff-cutter is also 

 useful because it enables the farmer to mix a certain quantity 



