248 THE STOCKFEEDER'S COMPANION 



sheep, which he can fatten off on his root-land. The 

 particular name given to sheep which are being 

 fattened off on roots with hay and cake varies in 

 different parts of the kingdom ; e.g., in Scotland a very 

 common term is "hoggets" for weaned lambs up to 

 first shear, and "hoggs" after that. In the Midlands 

 and south of England the term " teg " is often used 

 instead of " hoggs." The chief difficulty about the term 

 "hogg" is that one may very easily confuse it with 

 another kind of farm animal spelt with one " g " instead 

 of two. 



These sheep would first of all be kept on the grass- 

 land for a few weeks before being taken on to the 

 turnip-land. The arable farmer who goes in for 

 mutton production has reduced to a fine art the 

 method of growing root or forage crops, so as to have 

 a succession of succulent food for the sheep during the 

 winter months. E.g., with root crops, white-fleshed 

 turnips generally come first. These are followed by 

 the "yellows," or yellow-fleshed turnips, and are 

 themselves succeeded by swedes. In the Midlands 

 and south of England, mangels may be fed to a larger 

 extent than swedes. Mangels must be put into heaps 

 or " tumps," and protected during the winter frosts, but 

 it is more or less optional in the case of the turnips, 

 yellows and swedes. Generally speaking, they are 

 not carted off the land, although in some cases, say, 

 six drills may be alternately carted off and six left ; the 

 idea being more to get the sheep to manure the field 

 uniformly and well. In some cases the treading of 

 the sheep would be an advantage, in others not. 



The three common methods of feeding the roots off 

 are (a) open grazing; (b} folding, and eating the roots 

 whole ; (c) eating the roots whole through feeding- 



