88  On  the  Farming  of  Sussex. 
unable  to  take  advantage  of  the  improvements  that  are  continually 
brought  forward. 
Under  these  trying  circumstances  1 can  here  only  reiterate  the 
advice  I have  previously  given  to  farmers — to  study  and  apply 
the  system  of  farming  best  calculated  for  their  respective  soils, 
and  to  increase  their  quantity  of  arable  land  by  bringing  into 
cultivation  any  inferior  pasture  that  they  may  have,  and  I believe 
that  the  adoption  of  these  measures  would  afford  them  some  relief 
in  their  present  and  prospective  state.  And  here,  with  my  best 
wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  the  agriculturist,  I take  my  leave  of 
the  subject. 
V. — On  Winter  Feeding  of  Sheep.  I3y  Captain  the  Hon. 
Dudley  Pelham,  R.N.,  M.P. 
To  Mr.  Pusey. 
My  dear  Pusey, — Having  for  four  years  been  paying  some 
attention  to  the  practice  of  home  or  shed-feeding  of  sheep,  I am 
disposed  to  think  it  is  a subject  which  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently 
considered  by  farmers,  and  that  benefit  may  result  from  their 
attention  being  drawn  to  the  practice,  and  I address  you  in  the 
hope  you  may  consider  my  remarks  worthy  of  a place  in  the 
Royal  Agricultural  Journal.  Most  people  have  long  given  up, 
as  erroneous  in  principle  and  unprofitable  in  practice,  the  winter 
grazing,  or  attempting  to  fatten , oxen  in  the  field, — exposed  to 
wet  and  cold,  and  injuriously  poaching  the  land, — at  that  season  ; 
and  it  has  become  a general  method  to  bring  turnips  to  tbe  home- 
stead to  feed  store  oxen  in  addition  to  their  consumption  of  straw 
in  their  mere  manure-making  occupation,  as  well  as  for  the  pur- 
pose of  fattening  in  enclosed  buildings  those  animals,  whether 
oxen  or  pigs,  intended  for  immediate  sale  to  the  butcher ; but 
when  such  a proposition  is  made  as  bringing  in  turnips  to  be 
consumed  by  sheep  in  sheds  at  the  homestead,  or  on  particular 
spots  on  the  farm,  if  a large  one,  most  men  are  startled  at,  and 
immediately  condemn,  the  supposed  extravagance  of  carting  in 
the  sheep’s  food,  and  carting  out  the  sheep’s  manure  ; probably 
because  it  is  considered  that  the  commoner  mode  of  taking  the 
sheep  to  the  turnips  is  the  simplest  way  of  manuring  the  land  ; 
nevertheless,  I venture  to  believe  that  shed-feeding  will  by-and- 
by  become  more  general  for  tbe  winter-grazing  or  fattening  sheep. 
I am  not  going  to  trench  upon  the  ground  so  well  occupied  by 
Mr.  Lawes,  in  his  late  paper  on  sheep-feeding,  but  shall  confine 
myself  to  inviting  the  comparison  between  field-feeding  and  shed- 
feeding sheep  for  the  butcher  in  the  winter  or  colder  and  wetter 
