The Brecdiiu/ and Feeding of Sheep. 
635 
Show thirty years ago mth his Southclowus. I visited him on several 
occasions before this Society was established, and I found his ewes in 
the yard in the ^\^nte^, supplied with nothing but pea-straw ; and he 
assured me that they were thus kept healthier than they would be in 
any other way. Well, I tried the system, on a small scale it is true, 
because I grew very little peas ; but it proved to be so beneficial, that 
I have almost invariably kept a stack of pea-straw since, and given it 
to the ewes when they were lambing. The Professor has also referred 
to bean-straw. I had never used bean-straw, from having been in- 
formed that it was likely to cause gripes, until two or three years ago, 
when there was a great deficiency of fodder. I was told, moreover, 
that it was not good for cows, because it would dry up their milk. I 
then had the bean-straw cut and steamed, and I certainly never foimd 
my horses, cows, and other cattle do so well on any mixture of straw 
and hay as they did on bean-straw so cut and steamed. I lay great 
stress upon it being steamed, because it is otherwise so hard. I do 
not think that during the short time it remains in the animal's stomach 
much nutriment can be abstracted from it, unless it is half-digested by 
steam. I would now beg to offer the Professor the best thanks of the 
Society for his excellent lecture. 
Mr. Holland, M.P., had tried a mixture of chaff and cut hay with 
roots, and had foimd the economy in the consumption of food very 
gi-eat. He preferred a mixture of chaff and a little corn to corn alone, 
believing it as necessary for the digestion of sheep as for that of a 
cow that the stomach of the animal should be filled, though not 
entirely with highly nutritious food, to promote the mechanical 
process of digestion. Eich food, given in excess of the animal's 
requirements, is but a waste of money ; since a bulky material of less 
value would more effectually promotb digestion. At the time of 
weaning, his lambs were so managed that they hardly knew when they 
were weaned. The ewes and lambs were at that season fed on clover, 
or on artificial grasses in two pens partly separated by gates, through 
which the lambs could pass. The lambs running through the gate had 
the first cropping of that which the ewes would have to eat up, and 
were here supplied with the dust of cake, or something else which 
they took to kindly. When weaned they had no objection to leave 
off their mothers, and resort to the food to which they had thus 
by degrees become accustomed. 
He should like to know a little more with regard to the use of nets, 
by way of saving hurdles. This practice was more or less applicable 
according to the breed of sheep kept. But with his own breed nets 
were continually giving him trouble ; for the animals were caught in 
them and sometimes injured ; his being in a game country, the nets 
were so bitten by hares that the sheep could get their heads in, and 
were consequently more liable to accident. On the whole, therefore, 
he was inclined to prefer hurdles. 
Sir W. Miles, M.P., had very great pleasure in joining in the 
expression of thanks to the Professor for his admirable lecture, which 
gave them not only the theory but the practice that was followed at 
Cirencester; it was a history both of breeding and feeding, and 
