158 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



the sugar content of which has averaged twelve per cent, 

 thus making this root a most valuable one both for quantity 

 and nutritive value. Under the high culture of the best 

 English, and indeed some American farmers, the long red 

 mangel has produced fifty tons to the acre, and considerably 

 over at times. The yellow globe mangel is preferred by 

 some, but is not so easily grown as the long red variety, 

 which has made roots weighing seventy pounds each at 

 times. 



ENSILAGE. 



The introductioi of the silo made some twenty-three or 

 four years ago, and of which the first mention was made 

 by articles in the American Agriculturist by the author, 

 has practically revolutionized the Winter feeding of cattle, 

 and equally may do so for sheep. For as this bulky food is 

 specially adapted for ruminating animals, the sheep is 

 equally interested with the cows in this vast improvement 

 in the fodder supply. This term is fully justified by the fact 

 that silage will feed one cow per acre of land for a winter 

 under ensilage crops, at the least, and twice this is possible. 

 This being so, it follows that one acre of land should be able 

 to feed twenty-eight sheep a whole winter, taking the average 

 equalization of seven sheep being fed as easily as one cow. 

 But on the most reasonable figuring, these results may be 

 safely calculated upon. 



One acre of good corh ensilage will yield fifteen tons, 

 or 30,000 pounds. Ten pounds a day will make a good ration 

 for a sheep, so that one acre will afford three thousand ra- 

 tions. Feeding two hundred days in the year there is a sup- 

 ply for fifteen sheep for a long Winter. A two hundred 

 pound sheep will eat one peck of roots a day, which is fifteen 

 pounds, and twenty pounds a day is heavy root feeding. 

 But roots have an average of about ninety per cent of 

 water in them, while ensila.ge has only an average of sixty 

 to seventy per cent and some times less than this. So that 

 we may figure on one-fourth less ensilage for a ration than 

 of roots, and this of course adds to the feeding value of the 

 ensilage. 



The practice of ensilage is based on the fact that any 

 green fodder, solidly packed into an air tight receptacle, un- 



