Rape- Cake  as  Food  for  Stock. 
615 
soil,  especially  of  the  phosphates;  it  ought,  therefore,  to  have  them 
supplied  in  the  food  you  give  it,  and  you  cannot  supply  them  more 
readily,  or  at  a less  cost,  than  by  giving  rapecake,  which  contains  more 
phosphoric  acid  than  linseed-cake.  The  ashes  of  rape  (green)  are  parti- 
cularly rich  in  phosphoric  acid,  containing  nearly  20  per  cent. 
Excuse  this  very  rough  and  hurried  scrawl. — I have  no  ends  to  serve. — 
If  I can  bring  a cheap  food  into  the  notice  and  use  of  the  agricultural 
world,  I shall  be  satisfied ; only  you  may  rely  upon  my  not  riding  my 
hobby  further  than  it  is  profitable.  I should  certainly  not  have  troubled 
you  with  this  letter,  had  it  not  been  for  the  discussion  at  Thirsk. 
I am  yours  faithfully, 
M.  M.  Milburn,  Esq.,  Thirsk.  Chas.  Charnock. 
As  it  is  essential  to  the  practical  value  of  any  experiment  that 
it  should  be  conducted  on  a sufficiently  extensive  scale,  it  may 
be  right  to  mention  that  the  flock  on  the  Holmefield  House 
farm  comprises  about  3*20  pure-bred  Leicester  ewes,  and  their 
progeny,  usually  numbering  about  400,  in  addition : making 
a total  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year  of  upwards  of 
700  sheep,  out  of  which  from  380  to  400  are  annually  sold  off 
fat.  Mr.  Pusey’s  experiment  was  with  a flock  “ of  nearly  500 
sheep  and  thus  in  point  of  numbers  both  must  be  considered 
sufficient;  but  the  one  flock  being  exclusively  Leicesters,  and 
the  other  chiefly  half-breds,  with  a few  Downs,  and  the  success 
with  both  alike  satisfactory,  the  general  result  must  be  deemed 
the  more  conclusive.  If  doubt  can  longer  exist  whether  sheep 
thus  treated  will  eat  rape-cake,  let  those  who  are  sceptical  go  to 
Holmefield  and  look  for  themselves  ; remembering  that  as  with 
the  human  animal,  “he  was  a bold  man  who  ate  the  first  oyster,” 
so  cake  may  “ be  caviare  to  the  multitude  ” of  sheep. 
In  the  perusal  of  the  letter  we  have  given  there  are  four 
leading  features  which  present  themselves  for  consideration  : — 
1.  That  the  sheep  have  cake  given  to  them  all  the  year 
round. 
2.  That  the  health  of  the  flock  is  above  an  ordinary 
standard. 
3.  That  the  subsequent  corn  crops  are  superior. 
4.  That  by  this  system  of  feeding  on  the  land  (in  contradis- 
tinction to  fold  and  house-feeding)  the  cost  of  cartage  to  and 
fro  is  saved,  and  the  manure  distributed  in  the  most  uniform 
manner. 
Now,  by  consuming  cake  on  the  land  all  the  year  round,  each 
succeeding  grain-crop  obtains  a share  of  the  manure  so  made ; 
the  barley,  after  the  eaten-on  turnips,  will  have  the  benefit  of 
about  6 cwt.  of  cake  (rape  and  linseed)  per  acre  ; and  the  wheat, 
after  the  eaten-on  seeds,  will  get  about  2 cwt.  per  acre.  Every 
farmer,  from  blind  practice,  knows  the  benefit  to  the  following 
crop  from  the  eatage  on  the  land  of  green  rape ; and  most 
