616 
Rape- Calie  as  Food  for  Stock. 
fanners  also  know  that  rape-dust  is  considered  a very  good 
hand-tillage  for  wheat.  Why,  then,  should  not  a proportion  of 
rape-cake,  which,  as  Mr.  Charnock  observes,  is  but  the  concen- 
tration of  green  rape,  produce  corresponding  benefits  ? 
The  same  reasons  will  to  a great  degree  account  for  the  more 
than  average  health  of  this  flock;  the  condimental  properties  of 
the  rape-cake  not  only  sustaining  the  vigour  of  the  appetite,  but 
correcting  the  succulent  matter  of  the  green  food  ; so  effectually, 
indeed,  as  to  render  it  extremely  probable  that  the  use  of  rape- 
cake  in  situations  where  sheep  are  apt  to  take  the  rot,  might 
very  greatly  modify,  if  it  did  not  altogether  prevent,  this  disease. 
I have  noticed  also  the  same  outbreaks  on  the  mouth  and  ears  of 
some  of  the  lambs,  so  common  when  feeding  on  green  rape,  which 
is  strongly  confirmatory  of  the  value  of  rape-cake,  as  acting 
similarly  on  the  sheep  as  the  green  rape.  In  what  particular 
manner  or  degree  cake-food  influences  the  growth  of  young  sheep 
we  shall  not  .attempt  to  determine  ; but  that  it  does  produce  an 
earlier  maturity  of  frame  is  evident,  most  probably  through  the 
agency  of  the  nitrogen  and  phosphates,  and  also  a corresponding 
increase  of  flesh  and  wool.  The  former  possessing  all  those 
indications,  in  the  colour  of  the  mutton  and  gravy,  which  mark 
older  meat,  and  the  latter  being,  both  in  staple  and  strength,  very 
superior. 
It  is  not  our  present  purpose  to  enter  at  any  length  on  the 
comparative  advantages  of  house  or  out-door  feeding  ; we  desire 
only  as  briefly  as  possible  to  submit  whether  an  out-door  system, 
such  as  has  been  described,  is  not  more  economical,  and  in  every 
respect  as  efficacious,  than  feeding  under  cover,  and  thus 
necessarily  involving  a cost  for  cartage  in  and  out  that  in  our 
judgment  is  not  sufficiently  regarded  by  the  advocates  of  in-door 
feeding.  Of  course  with  fattening  cattle  the  in-door  plan  is 
indispensable ; but  it  is  not  so  with  sheep,  or  with  growing  stock 
and  pigs,  all  of  which,  by  proper  and  suitable  arrangements, 
may  be  advantageously  kept  on  the  land.  As  regards  sheep, 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  additional  warmth  when  under 
cover,  at  all  conduces  either  to  the  health  or  growth  of  the 
animal,  and  it  is  certainly  prejudicial  to  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  the  wool. 
There  is  yet  one  other  important  consideration  which,  from  the 
reproductive  principles  involved,  possesses  a primary  influence 
in  favour  of  a more  liberal  and  general  use  of  cake-food,  and  that 
is,  the  much  greater  number  of  sheep  which  it  enables  being 
profitably  kept  on  a given  extent  of  land.  Before  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  present  system,  it  was  with  difficulty  that  a flock  ot 
200  ewes  could  be  sustained  at  Holmefield,  and  the  fat  hogs  sold 
off  in  each  year  seldom  or  never  exceeded  260.  As  also  de- 
