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of inferior type and growth. Sheep -breeders should more often 

 recognise that their pastures would produce far more meat, bone, 

 and milk were suitable manurial assistance given. Generally, 

 the acid-treated phosphates are most suitable to light land, and 

 untreated, such as basic slag, on heavy or wet ones. Dry pastures 

 are always healthier than wet ones, consequently drainage should 

 be good. Sheep should be run thinly over pastures, and be 

 frequently changed from field to field. 



First Feeding of Leys. Good grass pastures and temporary 

 leys of grass, clover, sainfoin, and lucerne, afford good food for 

 wethers, and they can be kept very economically thereon. While 

 food is plentiful, particularly on the first feed-over, the sheep 

 thrive with very little corn. When I was managing the Woburn 

 experimental farm for the R.A.S.E., I had a striking illustration 

 of the value of the first feeding of seeds as compared with sub- 

 sequent feedings of the same crops. For the sake of experiment 

 the crop was divided into plots an acre in extent, and the sheep 

 received cake in one instance, maize in another, and on two acres 

 no extra food. During the five years over which the experiment 

 was tried in different places, those which received no corn increased 

 as much as those which had it ; but in the second feeding-off 

 each year, although the food looked as fresh as during the first 

 feeding, and the crop was as heavy, those which received corn went 

 far ahead, yet to all appearance the clover was as good on one 

 plot as on the others. As far as the feeding went the cake and 

 corn were wasted in the first feeding. Nothing different from 

 common practice was done, so it is highly probable that this has 

 been the case in feeding off much similar cropping in other places. 

 Close attention to the " doing " of the animals would probably 

 show that much corn is wasted on old sheep at this time. Sheep 

 can only make use of a certain amount of nutriment in whatever 

 form that nutriment is supplied ; and if the crop supplies all 

 that is necessary it is obviously waste to give them anything 

 additional. When the clover is stale, although luxuriant, as in 

 the second feeding-off, the advantage of corn is at once apparent. 

 Those who have a convenient weighbridge might easily put the 

 matter to the test. A skilled sheep-keeper and feeder knows by 

 handling whether or not the sheep are thriving satisfactorily ; but 

 every sheep-keeper, no matter how long his experience, is not 

 necessarily skilled, although he may have a good general knowledge. 



