SILAGE FOR SHEEP. 179 



troughs. The flock has been fed ensilage and good hay 

 in the morning, with oat hay in reasonable abundance in 

 the afternoon or evening. We have about ninety head of 

 breeding ewes, including the lambs referred to, and they 

 have been fed two grain sacks full of ensilage each day. 

 This is not by any means heavy feeding, and it might be 

 increased in quantity. This is a matter which we must 

 learn from experience. We have fed the ensilage with 

 care, not knowing what the results would be if fed heav- 

 ily. Next winter we plan to add ensilage to the feed for 

 our fattening flock. From the little experience we have 

 had so far, we think the effects will be good, and that we 

 shall be able to improve the quality of mutton by adding 

 ensilage to the other feeds that we shall use in finishing 

 our fattening flock." 



The following interesting experience illustrating the 

 value of silage for sheep-feeding is given by Mr. William 

 Woods, a celebrated English breeder of Hampshire- 

 Downs: "Last year, in August, I found myself with a 

 flock of some 1,200 Hampshire-Down ewes, and about 

 twelve or fourteen acres of swedes, on a farm of 4,000 

 acres, and these were all the roots there were to feed 

 them and their lambs during the winter. Knowing how 

 we should suffer from want of milk after lambing in Jan- 

 uary and February, I thought I would try (which no 

 doubt has often been tried elsewhere, though not in this 

 district) the effect of ensilage on ewes after lambing, 

 having heard by hearsay that it increased the milk of 

 cows nearly 30 per cent. I at once set to work to ir- 

 rigate what water meadows I could spare, and in the 

 month of October had a crop of grass that, had it been 

 possible to make it into hay, would have made a ton of 

 hay to the acre. I bought from the Aylesbury Dairy Com- 

 pany one of their Johnson's ensilage rick presses, and 

 put some seventy or eighty tons of cut meadow grass 

 under pressure. It must, however, be borne in mind 

 that second cut water meadow grass is some of the 

 poorest stuff that is consumed, either green or in hay, 



