388 
The fTin/er 0/1885-86. 
4 to 6 lbs. of linseed-cake. Sheep QWelsh mountain breed) out on the grass 
all the winter, eating 1 lb. of cake with rough Lay. After the cabbages were 
gone, the beasts went on very well without any other succulent food, and 
began to be drawn for the butcher the middle of April in very fine condition, 
and sold for exactly double what they cost a twelvemonth before. 
" 5. Trifolium being so late, I purchased a little green rye for a fortnight, 
but did not observe any perceptible improvement in the cattle, or any indica- 
tion that they had suffered from the absence of green food. 
"6. No. 
" 7. No shelter provided, except corrugated-iron building for lambing. 
" 9. The reasons you suggest are those which I should give, with the 
addition of the crippled state of the farmer's finances, and his credit being so 
bad as to make it impossible for him to rely upon his bankers for adequate 
assistance. 
" 10. The principal lesson I have learnt is the great value of the cabbage 
as a reliable plant, however great the drought, in producing a succulent 
winter food, more valuable than any silage. The numerous varieties now 
in existence suitable for successive feeding will largely make the farmer 
independent of the turnip crop or the silo." 
Mr. C. de L. Faunce de Laune, Sharsted Court, Sitting- 
borne, Kent : 
" 1. Soil varies considerably, being composed of chalky banks without soil, 
chalk, gravel, and brick-earth of various depths, and a little alluvial soil. 
Climate dry, and exposed to winds. 
" 2. Summer and autumn of 1885 very dry. Winter of 1885-86 a long 
period of frost and snow, but at no time was the snow visible many days. 
Spring of 188G dry and ungenial ; both crops and stock during the winter 
period did not do well. Hops on my farm were an entire failure. 
" 3. The summer of 1885 was dry, and root crops grew badly, and mangolds 
were of very little value for feeding. Thousand-headed kale grew fast in the 
autumn, and was a fair and valuable crop, and severe winter did not injure it 
to any extent. I grew no turnijis, except a small piece which was planted 
very late, and which produced a crop of small roots. 
"4. I used silage for sheep, and also a large quantity of threshed straw, 
besides artificial food, in addition to kale and the mangold-wurzel. 
" 5. Kale kept good until the early spring, which, with mangolds, lasted until 
the grass grew in the pastures. 
" 6. I made a considerable quantity of silage last summer of grass and 
lucerne, and in the autumn of the vines from the failed hop gardens, which 
proved to be of great value during the long severe winter, and when chafl'ed 
up with straw it proved an excellent winter food, as it seemed to moisten and 
give a flavour to the straw, which was then freely eaten by sheep. I consider 
it advisable to give a highly nitrogenous food to sheep, such as decorticated 
cotton-cake, at the same time when tbey are feeding on silage. 
" 7. I provide [Jantations of trees for the shelter of sheep, besides lodges 
and other shelters. I also consider that further shelter is highly desirable and 
necessary to give all the advantage this climate is capable of giving by ensuring 
the early growth of grass. 
" 9. I consider that the abnormally low jn ices of betf and mutton were 
caused more by the tactics of the middlemen than the shortness of the crops 
or forced sales of animals.'' 
Mr. A, F. Parbury, Old Park, Rusper, Horsham, Sussex : 
" 1. North Sussex, in the parish of Horsham. The farm (150 acres) is 
favourably situated on a hill, 372 feet above the sea-level. The soil is clay, 
