514 Sheep-Feeding Experiments at Crawley Mill Farm, 
XVIII. — Sheep-feeding Experiments conducted at Crawley Mill 
Farm, Woburn, in the J^FinteroflSS5-Q. By Dr. J. AUGUSTUS 
VOELCKEK, B.A., B.Sc, Consulting Chemist to the Society. 
In 1885, on a portion of Lansome Field, not generally devoted 
to experiment, a crop of Swedish turnips was grown, which in 
the ordinary course would have been eaten off by sheep with 
the addition of some artificial food, to be followed afterwards 
by a crop of barley. It struck me as desirable, while following 
this course, at the same time also to carry out a feeding experi- 
ment. This suggestion meeting with the approval of the 
Chemical Committee, a plan of experiment was drawn up. 
The recent heavy fall in the price of wheat and other cereals 
grown on the farm has naturally drawn attention to the ques- 
tion as to how far these can be profitably used for home con- 
sumption. It was further considered desirable to try by actual 
experiment whether wheat given to sheep as food would prove, 
as is frequently supposed to be the case, dangerous. Side by 
side with these experiments, it was determined to feed sheep 
according to the usual practice of the county, with linseed- 
cake and cotton-cake. In addition to the practical matter of 
feeding, I was interested in a scientific question, to which 
considerable attention has been directed, viz., that of how far 
it is necessary that a diet should be nitrogenous in character 
for profitable results in feeding. 
The winter 1885-6 was a very trying one ; damp, cold 
winds, and wet weather, with rapid alterations of atmospheric 
conditions, acting very prejudicially upon the health of the 
sheep, and indeed causing the loss of several ; altogether the 
conditions were most unfavourable for the well-being of the 
animals. The crop of Swedish turnips grown in 1885 was a 
very fair one for the county and the year. When ripe they 
were pulled up, topped, tailed, put in heaps, and covered with 
straw and earth. The sheep were folded on the land, and 
supplied with sliced turnips, the experiment being carried on 
as long as the roots remained sound and good. The sheep 
experimented on were a cross of the Hampshire and Oxford- 
shire Down breeds, about ten months old. On December 3rd, 
forty sheep were selected, and divided into five pens of eight 
sheep each, the weights being as given in Table I. 
Previous to the commencement of the experiment the sheep 
had been a short time upon the roots, in order to get them 
accustomed to the food. 
