$2 THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



straw. Generally, those who have fed this material largely, and 

 who have taken pains to harvest it when the corn is just glazed, 

 and before the frost has stricken it, and to cure and house it care- 

 fully, will agree that it at least more nearly approaches in value to 

 good meadow hay than to oat straw, while some careful, intelli- 

 gent, and observant feeders will insist that is very nearly, if not 

 quite equal as fodder, to ordinary meadow hay. The impossibil- 

 ity of subsisting sheep upon straw will be manifest when its value 

 is compared with that of hay; for if 3 pounds of hay would sup- 

 ply a sheep of 100 Ibs. live weight with sufficient nutriment to 

 maintain it in a thriving condition, as it should do, 17 to 20 Ibs. of 

 straw would be required as an equivalent, which is a quantity that 

 no sheep could possibly be made to consume. Therefore, when 

 sheep are wintered in the straw yard, unless they have a sufficient 

 supply of grain along with the small quantity of straw they can 

 be made to consume, they must live in a state of semi-starvation, 

 a condition in which unfortunately not a few flocks are expected 

 to exist. Roots furnish a staple food of the greatest value for 

 winter feeding of sheep. When fed in proper quantities, their 

 laxative effect healthfully opposes the tendency of dry hay or 

 straw to produce costiveness, and in addition they supply a con- 

 siderable proportion of needed phosphates and sulphur for the 

 growing animal and its fleece. But if fed in excess, the large 

 quantity of water they contain, and their large bulk, especially 

 when they are fed in the winter, reduce the temperature of the 

 animal too much, and gradually act unfavorably on the health. 

 When ewes in lamb are fed roots in any but very small quantities, 

 abortion is frequently produced, and this ill effect has been noticed 

 more conspicuously when the roots have been manured heavily 

 with superphosphate of lime. This has been noticed by some ex- 

 tensive feeders and breeders in England, where that fertilizer is 

 largely used in root culture, and their experience should serve as 

 a warning to us. The reason assigned for the loss of lambs by 

 abortion when many turnips are fed, is not only that the foetus is 

 affected by the presence of a mass of very cold matter in the stom- 

 ach of the ewe, but that there is an irritation produced in the in- 

 testines by this unacceptable food, which causes the death and ex- 

 pulsion of the foetus. Nothing of the kind has occurred in flocks 

 that have been largely fed on cooked roots, supplied at such a 

 temperature that would prevent a chill to the animal. It may, 

 therefore, be understood that it is the low temperature, generally 

 near freezing, and often below it, at which the roots are given, 

 |n<J nothing in th$ rpots themselves that act thue injuriously 



