234 
Farminr/ of OxfordsJdre. 
are seen at. fairs of tliat age, but the two-tooth, or shearling, 
sheep that are fatted are mostly Downs. 
The few sheep found on the arable clay farms are ewes, which 
are kept in the yard during the winter, and as spring advances 
are turned out with their lambs to consume some green meat 
The dairy farms usually have a few ewes which remain on the 
pastures all the year round. On much heavy land the farmers 
keep no sheep, but a man called a "joist " shepherd brings his 
flock, and has the run of the stubbles and other food given him 
for folding his sheep on the fallows at night. This was a very 
general custom in days gone by, l)ut is now nearly obsolete. 
The epizootic epidemic is still troublesome, but especially among 
fat sheep and young lambs. The most serious losses have tiiis 
year been sustained from the rot : not only have tlie flooded 
meadows produced rot, but many apparently sound pastures, as 
well as undrained arable land, have rotted sheep this wet season. 
It is difficult to form a correct estimate of the extent of this 
disorder, but it has been computed on good authority that on 
the grass-lands of the county fully one-half of the sheep were 
rotted. 
The artificial food principally given to sheep is beans ; com- 
paratively little of anything else is used. In districts where 
beans are not very plentiful, peas, oats, oil-cake, malt-dust, and 
pollard may be used ; but the favourite food is beans, for lambs 
as well as lor old sheep. Many persons say that a pound of 
beans is more than equivalent to a pound of oil-cake : for certain 
purposes it is ; it may produce more muscle, but certainly not so 
much fat. Tlie Oxford farmers are all for beans, while the 
Norfolk men as much prefer oil-cake : each use their own 
favourite food indiscriminately, whereas a judicious mixture, or 
giving the beans to growing stock and the cake to fatting animals, 
would be better. A gentleman who has repeatedly tried experi- 
ments with beans and cake, states it to be his opinion that a ton 
of oil-cake is equal in value to a load (5 quarters) of old beans. 
Consequently when cake is at 8Z. per ton, beans should be pur- 
chased at 32s. per quarter, or they are not so cheap as good oil- 
cake : now that old beans are worth from 50s. to 60s. per quarter 
they are the most costly feed that can be purchased ; but till 
this year beans have been bought more reasonably than cake. 
Spring beans are always considered better feed than winter ones, 
and old beans are reckoned to be worth from 6s. to 8s. per 
quarter more than new. Too liberal an allowance of beans 
makes the meat hard and tough, and severe losses are frequently 
experienced when sheep are highly fed on them. The Cotswold 
men about Christmas allow their tegs half a pint of beans a-day. 
