MIXED FEEDS FOE SHEEP. 243 



ten or fifteen cents a bushel. But I know of no cheaper feed, 

 except the last; and that does not approach turnips in 

 cheapness, on lands equally suited to their respective produc- 

 tion in the Middle or Eastern States. In all the latter 

 situations — even in those interior regions where the price of 

 hay has hitherto averaged less than $8 a tun — it is more 

 economical to feed turnips with hay and straw, than it is to 

 feed ha.y alone. I have established that fact to my own 

 satisfaction by the' experience of many years. 



The beet is not included in the above English experiments, 

 and I have never used it as sheep feed myself. Mr. Chamber- 

 lain brought a variety of it with his sheep from Silesia, and is 

 satisfied of the economy and high utility of the crop — but 

 has not, so far as I am informed, tested it in comparison with 

 turnips. My friend, Hon. George Geddes, of Fairmount, 

 New York, has cultivated the same kind of beets, and also 

 turnips, for sheep feed. On his soils (among the best in the 

 State) he, thus far, gives preference to the beet. He has not 

 instituted any comparisons between them by weighing 

 respectively feed and product — but as a farmer who has no 

 superior in our country in both the theory and practice Of his 

 occupation, his observations, although unaided by such tests, 

 are entitled to very great weight. Carrots have failed as 

 sheep feed in this country, for the same reasons assigned by 

 Mr. Robert Smith for their failure in England. Rape is 

 cultivated by a few of our growers of English sheep, and is 

 thought highly of by them. Tares and cole seed are unknown 

 to the great body of our sheep farmers, and I am not aware 

 that common cabbage is cultivated by any of them as a field 

 crop for sheep. , 



Mixed Feeds.— In making up mixed feeds for sheep, 

 composed of the different products which are found most 

 available and economical, care should be taken to keeip the 

 proportion of nutriment to bulk such that a proper supply of the 

 former can be taken into the stomach, without oppressing that 

 organ. It has been seen that 3^ per cent, of the live weight per 

 diem in hay, about meets the demands of the animal economy; 

 and it probably also about fills the stomach to a comfortable 

 state of fuUness. If then a sheep weighing 90 lbs. received half 

 its nutriment in hay and half in the better kinds of straw 

 (which contain half as much nutriment as hayi) it would be 

 required to consume 1-^ lbs. of hay and 3 lbs. of straw daily 

 — an aggregate of 4^ lbs., which, I think, could not be 



