98 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



the greatest importance in the case of decorticated cotton cake. 

 As cotton cake contains a large proportion of flesh-formers, it 

 should be given in mixture with foods containing more starch. 

 Special feeding calces are usually well compounded and safe foods. 

 This is not always the case, and sometimes very inferior stuff 

 is employed in their manufacture. Such foods should be bought 

 on analysis, and care should be taken on delivery that they are 

 sweet and in good condition. 



Wheat, barley and oats are valuable foods, and at low prices are 

 economically used as sheep foods. As a rule they are better for 

 being mixed with peas, cotton cake, or other nitrogenous food. 

 With all grain and starchy foods a small quantity of crushed linseed 

 is of special value, as the oil greatly aids digestion and helps to 

 maintain the health of the animals. By themselves they are found 

 to be heating. Peas, beans and lentils are excellent sheep foods, 

 helping to form a good proportion of lean meat, and making the 

 sheep handle firmly. It is important that peas and beans be not 

 used when they are new, as they are then indigestible, causing scour 

 and other disturbances, and do not yield their full feeding powers. 

 They are not considered old until the March following their 

 harvesting, and it is better to let them remain a full year before 

 being consumed. Peas, beans, and all corn and grain should be 

 passed through a kibbling machine. It is advisable not to reduce 

 them to a fine meal, but to crack or grittle them, as meal is liable 

 to be blown out of the feeding troughs, or in wet weather to form 

 a paste. Large quantities of unbroken corn swell sufficiently to 

 distend the stomach unduly ; and the full value is rarely obtained 

 when given whole. The cost of grittling is well repaid. 



Maize and rice are starchy foods, well adapted for mixing with 

 the more nitrogenous foods. Malt culms, pea husk and bran are 

 valuable foods, and have a special utility for mixing with chaff or 

 chop to make animals eat a larger quantity. Pea husk is very 

 suitable food for lambs, and we know of no other food which keeps 

 them in such good health. Hay, if not a highly concentrated food, 

 is a valuable aid to the sheep -keeper, as in addition to a fair amount 

 of feeding properties, it tends in no small degree to keep the animals 

 in a thriving and healthy condition. Sainfoin, lucerne, broad 

 clover, and " mixture " from temporary leys are, if anything, 

 preferable to meadow hay, although the latter is very valuable. 

 Sainfoin and broad clover are the best. It may be given in racks 

 in ordinary condition, or in troughs chaffed. 



