Ej-cesdive Uge of Tumipn Undesirable. 49 



Cut several times in the year. Eaten with good appetite by 

 cows, horses, pigs, fowls, and ducks. 



Melilotiu Siherica. — Grows with great luxuriance. Eaten 

 greedily by all stock. A plant very highly deserving a more 

 extended culture. 



I now turn to a point which was evidently of great 

 importance in Young's times, and which, in consequence 

 of grain growing having become unprofitable, has again 

 become of great consequence, for the expensive turnip 

 crop is not a crop that pays of itself, but is largely of 

 value because of the grain crop that follows. If, then, 

 grain is low in price, it is of obvious importance to 

 replace the turnip crop as far as we can by some 

 cVieaper crop that will aid us in carrying our flocks 

 through the winter and spring, and, as an additional 

 reason for doing so, I may point to the well-known fact 

 that turnips, when used exclusively, are an unsuitable 

 food for sheep, as they are productive of disease — so 

 much so that it is almost proverbial amongst shepherds, 

 who all know that the more turnips we have the more 

 sheep disease. And I may mention that when there 

 was once a great failure in the turnip crop in this 

 neighbourhood the sheep never did so well. I met with 

 a remarkable instance of the danc^er of using turnips 

 freely in the case of a farmer to whom I let a farm 

 which had for some years been in my own hands. He 

 complained to me that he had met with a great loss 

 amongst his sheep, and yet when the farm was in my 

 hands the death-rate had been vei-y low, and, in going 

 into the 8uV)ject, I found that it had arisen evidently 

 from his changing his flock at the end of autumn to an 

 exclusive diet of turnips. So that by turnin;.'; our 

 attention to other food for winter and spring I feel 

 sure that we shall not only feed our flocks much more 

 cheaply, but keep them in far healthier condition. I 

 now proceed to quote Young's experiences of the value 

 of what in his time was called rouen — or aftermath 

 saved for spring use. 



D 



