The Past Agricultural Year. 
237 
of 100 theavcs and 40 hoggetts ; another of 150, all the breeding flock ; 
another of forty, and so on. None of these, except the hoggetts, were bought 
sheep, and they were kept on the ordinary pastures. All flocks had serious 
losses at lambing, principally from low fever, caused, I think, by want of 
nitrogenous food. 1 have little doubt but that my own loss of fourteen 
theaves was caused by this, not from want of food ; but I think more blood- 
food was needed. During the last month of pregnancy, when the fcctus 
seems to develop rapidly, was the critical period. All that died, or were ill, 
were young sheep with twins. 
Shropshire sheep are very prolific, and we induce this habit by feeding them 
on rather stimulating herbage at tupping time, so that we ought to be doublj' 
careful in unpropitious weather, particularly if very cold and wet. Where it 
can be had, a good run of grass, with a few turnips — and, during the last 
month or so of ])regnancy, a pound of oats, peas or cake, or a mixture of them, 
given with a little clover-chaff or bran — is a good flesh-forming diet. For 
similar reasons lambs needed young pastures and trough-meat during the 
spring and summer. 
2. Tillage Operations. — As to the effect of the winter and spring on crop- 
ping, it may be broadly stated that the strong and cold soils suffered severely. 
Wheat was thin on the ground, and very backward. The earliest sown on 
such soils fared the best, from getting fairly rooted before the frost set in. 
Land of uneven surface, even where drained, lost plant in the hollows from 
the snow being drifted into them, and alternately thawed and frozen. The 
old rules remain : sow difiScult working land early, on fairly rounded 
stetches ; cut water grips, draw furrows, and do not harrow down too fine. 
Barley, in consequence of the long frost, went in well, but was the worst 
crop of the season. Winter beans were a failure ; they had many enemies 
beside the frost. The great loss of roots from exposure ought to teach every 
one that it is poor economy to neglect taking every care of such an expensive 
and valuable crop. We had to plough up our winter tares. Under an 
ordinary rainfall succeeding the long and severe frost, iallows, I have no 
doubt, would have worked admirably ; but what we hoped would prove our 
blessing was our bane. The disintegrated soil admitted the water so freely 
and fully, and the quantity of rainfall being in excess and the temperature 
below par, any attempt at ploughing or scuffling the land simply puddled or 
plastered it ; cleaning was out of the question, and a great breadth of roots 
was sown in a very imsatisfactory manner. Hoeing was simply transplanting 
weeds. All crops (seeds especially) have been much benefited by ammoniacal 
to];>-dressings ; and an amount which, under a forcing season, would have been 
dangerous to the crop, has this year been absorbed healthily and, I think, 
economically. 
G. A. Mat. 
Shropshike. — Church Streiton. 
1. As to the live-stock. The drop of lambs was usually in this district 
below the average, with very great losses during and after the lambing season, 
and the loss among the ewes was almost unprecedented. Owing to the wet 
autumn and severe winter, thousands of sheep have died from the rot or fluke 
in the liver ; but on my own farm I have been wonderfully fortunate, as my 
loss has been nominal, although the drop of lambs was not large : 415 lambs, 
after the lambing season was well over, from 331 ewes, 21 of which were 
barren. Feeding-sheep did well on swedes, where they were well looked after ; 
but in many places there were great losses from the roots being left exposed 
in the fields ; and these did the sheep little or no good, if they did not even 
