Straw as Food for Stock. 
12') 
supplied onr young owes with a quarter of a lb. a day of palm-nut meal, with 
chaff, and a very small quantity of roots, and they throve wonderfully." 
Then, again, in his Prize Essay on the 'Management of 
Sheep Stock,' published in the 'Journal' for 1865, he observes 
that a much larger number of animals might be kept in many 
instances by economising the supply of roots with dry food. 
1 le says : — 
" Hitherto farmers have supposed that a bellyful of turnips was necessary 
for a breeding animal, ami have based their calculations on their stock of roots 
that were to be thus wasted. The past winter has taught us to give these 
roots in a healthier form, eking out the supply by a nice admixture of other 
food supplied in a palatable form. I have lately inspected a flock of Hamp- 
shire Down ewes that did not have a root before lambing. They ran on grass- 
land during the day, being hurdled at night, so as to dress and improve the 
pasture. Morning and night they got trough-food, consisting of straw and 
hay-chaff — two-thirds of the former and one-third of the latter — bruised oats, 
and palm-nut meal. The cost of the artificial food amounted to 2'id. a head 
weekly. Not one ewe died during the winter, and I never saw animals in a 
more promising state for lambing." 
In another place he says : — 
"The object of this Essay is to point out the best means of increasing 
sheep-stock. Here, then, is one way. We must make one acre of turnips 
keep twice as many sheep as hitherto in a far more healthy condition. Last 
winter in too many cases the difficulty was to find any roots at all ; but great 
and lasting good may be anticipated from the evil then felt. I saw many 
flocks during the past winter living on damp chaff, with a little artificial 
food, and doing as well as could be wished, with every prospect of a healthy 
produce, and plenty of milk. I have long desired to see an economical plan 
of pulping roots devised, as the animal might then be induced to eat a large 
quantity of straw-chaff, rendered palatable and nutritious by a small addition 
of artificial food. Nor would such a system be so extravagant as at first it 
might appear. Let us assume, by way of example, that our crop of turnips 
equals 15 tons per acre, and that instead of 20 lbs. per head we give 10 lbs. 
(amply sufficient), with 1 lb. of straw-chaff and i lb. per day each of artificial 
food, and it follows that 100 sheep will consume an acre in thirty-three days, 
and 7 cwt. of extra food will be spent on each acre, besides lj ton of straw, 
so as considerably to increase our produce of corn, besides the chief object of 
keeping a heavier stock of breeding sheep in a healthy state." 
The famine winter for stock of 1864-5, alluded to above, 
brought flockmasters very generally by sheer compulsion to the 
straw-stack, which was in that direful season invaluable as 
affording the only means whereby the sheep-stock of the country 
could possibly be saved from starvation. Similar cases to the 
above could be related by well-nigh everybody having to do with 
agricultural pursuits at that period. Indeed Mr. H. Evershed, 
in the same volume of the ' Journal,' relates a bold experiment 
by which he wintered 1500 sheep, although he had scarcely any 
turnips, their almost entire food consisting of straw-chaff and 
meal. I had the satisfaction of conducting an experiment of a 
very similar nature, although on a smaller scale — my lot of 
