On the Farming of Suffolk. 



295 



by the best cultivators that a flock part grazing and part breeding 

 is the most profitable to keep. It is a practice of some farmers 

 (though not much to be recommended) to have their turnip-crop 

 fed off by other persons' sheep at a certain rate per score. They 

 certainly run no risk by investing their capital in sheep, but they 

 are very liable to have their turnips fed off at an unseasonable 

 time. And I have known when turnips have been very abun- 

 dant, that those gentlemen who farm without any stock are glad 

 to have their neighbours' sheep and feed them gratis, and some- 

 times give money in addition ; and even occasionally dispose of 

 part of their* root-crop by ploughing them in. 



Notwithstanding the prescribed limits of this report, it may 

 not perhaps be out of place to give the details of the practice of 

 grazing sheep on turnips. The farmers who practise this system 

 either buy in lambs or shearlings, or fatten those they have reared. 

 These are hurdled first on white turnips and then on swedes ; the 

 practice of cutting is on the increase, the turnips having of late 

 years been cut with a machine and then given in troughs. This 

 makes a slight increase of labour, but it effects a great saving in 

 the food : the cost of tending amounts to about Is. a score per 

 week. Chaff (cut hay, the straw of oats, wheat, or peas, or the stalks 

 of seed-clover) is given night and morning both to ewes and 

 fatting sheep, the latter having generally hay- chaff, with the 

 addition of linseed-cake or corn. As the fold is frequently at a 

 considerable distance from the homestead, a supply of chaff and 

 cake is kept in a small wooden house on wheels, which not only 

 serves to keep the provender dry, but is also a comfortable 

 shelter for the shepherd and his assistants while getting their 

 meals. The troughs in which the dry food is given are usually 

 covered, to prevent loss from the sheep refusing to eat the chaff 

 and cake after they have been wetted. In very wet weather and on 

 a loamy soil the sheep are removed to some dry pasture for a 

 short time, as the trampling in very heavy rains is considered 

 injurious both to the land and to the sheep. Swedes for fat sheep 

 are stored in different ways: the usual one is in small heaps 

 of about 40 bushels each. The turnips are either topped and 

 tailed, or the tops only removed ; the heaps are covered with straw 

 and haulm, and then a thin layer of mould, leaving the straw 

 exposed on the ridge to admit the air. The price for this varies 

 from 7s. to IO5. per acre, according as the turnips are cleaned or 

 not. Another plan is by laying three drills in a furrow ; two 

 rows of turnips are first pulled and laid on one side to give pas- 

 sage for the plough, a furrow is drawn, and three drills of turnips 

 laid with their tops to the land-side ; they are now covered by the 

 first-ploughed furrow being turned back. When wanted for use 

 the turnips are thrown out by running a plough along the furrow. 



