528 = 262 
Practical Agriculture. 
provided as a protection from snow-blasts ; and both roots am 
hay and corn are carried to the sheep in the least expose( 
situations. 
■Wintering On clay-land s, the system of wintering- sheep in yards havini 
sheep m yards, g^gjg jg extending in favour. The experience of Mr. Alfred S 
Mr. Ruston's Ruston, at Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, may be quoted on thi 
practice. practice. He made very close observations with 600 to 70( 
sheep in yards, valued them in and out of the yards, kept ; 
strict diary, calculated the cost of artificial food, noticed wha 
quantity of straw they made into manure, and also the qualit 
of the manure. He says, " I find 6 lamb-hoggs tread down a 
much straw, and make it into as good manure, as a 12/, or 14/ 
bullock. I put the sheep into my ordinary straw-yards, anc 
always reckon 6 sheep for a bullock ; so that where I shouli 
have had 10 bullocks I put 60 sheep. I find it is very essentia 
to keep a thin layer of dry straw over the yard. In wet da}» 
we litter them twice a-day, and on fine days once, but only us 
a very small quantity at a time ; this just keeps the heat of th 
manure from rising to injure their feet, and prevents them froi 
treading on wet straw during the day. In one whole wintc 
I had not more than a dozen lame sheep in the yards, and thei 
were far fewer cases in the yards than there were before tb 
sheep came in. When they first come into the yard, and unt 
the end of February, we give them a larger quantity of dr 
food. They pick the bedding-straw over, and, when practicable 
have a stack or good heap in the yard to run to. We also ci 
them chaff, hay and straw together, feeding them with it seven 
times a day. We give them mangolds (turnips and swedi 
not being produced extensively on the fen-lands) twice or thri( 
a day, taking care that the quantity is not such as to make tl 
sheep scour. As the days lengthen, after the end of Februar 
we increase the quantity of roots and reduce the supply > 
dry food. I find that an acre of mangolds of an average cn 
will carry 25 lamb-hoggs, say from the beginniqg of Decoi) 
ber to the beginning or middle of April. Old sheep wi 
consume more ; there may be 20 sheep per acre." M 
Ruston reckons the profit (or return for the natural food aft 
the artificial is paid for) on a bullock to be 30s. ; on 6 shee 
no less than 3/. I85., leaving in each case the same value 
manure. 
Mr. Rnndell's Mr. Charles Randell, of Chadbury, Evesham, Worcestershii 
practice. -^^^ frequently wintered ewe-tegs in straw-yards, and avoidi 
lameness ; the only precaution necessary being to litter wi 
straw daily, but only just so much as is necessary. In this w; 
che manure is so consolidated by treading, that little ferment 
lion goes on, and the cause of foot-rot in yards is avoided. 13 
m 
