WINTER FEEDING FOR WOOL. 177 



In feeding roots to sheep, in any ease, it is wise in our 

 estimation, to stop at ten pounds a day, for a lainb under 

 seventy pounds live weight, and less in proportion as the 

 age is less. It must be remembered the English lambs 

 are to the manor born, as regards the feeding of roots, 

 and inheritance unquestionably determines the nature of a 

 lamb in this, as in other respects. So that the American 

 shepherd who thinks of introducing root feeding on the 

 English system (and this should only be in the absence 

 of freezing weather), will be wise to go slow at first, feed- 

 ing his way to the safe end, which is only reached by ex- 

 perience. This is always applicable to special circumstances, 

 which, we have learned, alter cases. As a rule the Ger- 

 man and French experiments in feeding sheep from a 

 scientific standpoint, as from results gained at the experi- 

 ment stations, have never been so successful as the prac- 

 tical feeding on the common farm practices, existing for 

 many years, and learned by long personal experience, and 

 the rules laid down by the most successful feeders and scien- 

 tific experimenters. Something of this may be reasonably 

 attributed to the moister climate of England, by which the 

 nutritive character of the grass and other feeding crops is 

 improved, over and above those of the drier climate of Con- 

 tinental Europe. The same difference will doubtless be 

 found applicable on our side of the Atlantic. 



WINTER FEEDING FOR WOOL. 



This is pre-eminently the age of science. In every part 

 of the work of the human race, among whom products are 

 cultivated under the present high degree of competition and 

 consequent necessary cheapness, the science of every art 

 is made the basis of practical work. This applies in a special 

 way to the feeding of animals for their valuable products 

 as it is applied to the culture of every farm crop. The pre- 

 cise composition of every product is studied out by the 

 chemists, and their directions are made the basis of all 

 kinds of work, in every department of human industry. 

 This has now become the rule and it is indispensable 

 that all concerned should live up to it, or the work 

 cannot be made profitable. This is so for the 

 simple reason that economy must be studied, and it 



