Some of the Agricultural Lessons (t/"1868. 
57 
lind about fifty pounds per day, or U-ss than half llic usual allowancfi. For 
the store cattle wc adopted tiie following plan : we had a quantity of rough 
potatoes which were boiled with some linseed, and, after being mashed up, 
the soup \vas thrown over chaff, three parts of straw and one of hay ; some 
malt-dust was also strewn over the heap to season it, and a lew brewers* 
grains. The whole was then well mixed up and thrown into a heap and 
served out to the cattle three times a day. I never saw the beasts do better 
than they did that year. 
"For the fatting sheep we had clover-hay chaff with grains and an allow- 
ance of ground corn all mixed well together and served to them fresh three 
times a day. The store sheej) had lialf \\a,y and half straw-chaff mixed with 
grains and a little malt-dust. The ewes had a jik'ntiful supply of good hay 
rip till \\'ithin a week of lambing, when, in addition, they had half a cart-load 
of mangolds daily amongst 180, which was increased to a whole load as they 
got used to them. We had several acres of rape, stubble turnips, and rye, for 
early spring feed, and these we found veryjiseful for the ewes after lambing. 
The above is as nearly as possible the jjlan of feeding which we adopted in a 
year of even shorter supplies than the present one, and we shall adoi)t it again 
this year so far as we find it necessary." 
A gfood many, however, have this year cut the knot of their 
difficuhy rather than attempt untying it. As there was little 
cattle-food in the country, the demands upon it were reduced, 
the stock heing sold half fat at a loss. Thus Mr. W. Bulstrode, 
of Maidenhead, reports of his neighbourhood : — 
" The alarm created early in the autumn induced graziers to keep their 
stock much lower than usual ; and the nature of the season since having 
l^romoted such imusual gTOwth, at a time when it was little expected, the 
difSculty will not now be great in this district, which is not a breeding one." 
P And Mr. Sowerby, of Aylesby, in North Lincolnshire, reports : — 
" As to sheep I think we have about half less left for wintering than we usually 
have. Tens of thousands of lambs have gone to market lean and slaughtered 
that would have come out in the spring, and numbers will go before Christmas. 
As to what sheep remain, we live in hopes the young turnips will yet come to 
something; should they fail us, our breeding ewes must be kept upon grass land 
and get corn and cake ; feeding, sheep must be limited in the quantity of 
turnips, and supplemented largely with the cheapest feeding stuffs we can buy ; 
and I do not think anything is better than linseed and cotton-cake. No doubt 
large numbers of sheci) will keep> coming to market iu a half fat state ; as has 
been the case for some time. This must trespass oh our future supplies, for 
should other counties have made away with their yoimg sheep as wc have, we 
must feel the want of them next spring." 
In Norfolk, Mr. Cubitt tells me that on the large flock farms 
of that county many sent their hoggets half fat to market, 
realising for them about one-half to two-thirds their cost price in 
the spring of the year. Tn Yorkshire, Mr. Outhwaite, of Bainesse, 
tells of a similar enforced sale of stock ; though not of quite 
so disastrous a retreat in the face of threatening difficulty. 
He says : — 
" The greatest portion of the young sheep in this district have been sold to 
tlie butcher. Those which were not ready for such purpose have to be kept 
