Suggestions for Stock-feeding in the Winter of 1893-94. 463 
condition, but from starvation. The rains that fell at the end of 
July and beginning of August served in most places to relieve 
current anxieties, and in some way helped to prepare a more 
hopeful outlook for winter, as many hayricks were afterwards 
made, and some amount of material was grown for silage. 
Catch crops, which have recently been again widely advo- 
cated, are all very well on good easy-working land, but they are 
not always profitable then, and in many districts are a positive 
loss, as the regular crop is often delayed and even lost, through 
land not working, and other causes. I refer to swedes or turnips, 
after vetches, or Italian rye grass and trifolium. We know from 
experience that a lot of work has to be done to prepare and 
clean land after such crops, and this takes time. If bad weather 
intervenes, the main crop is lost. Moreover, there is the general 
work of the farm going on, and labour means money. 
However, to limit myself strictly to the text, the problem is, 
How to winter my stock of nearly 40 horses, 1,000 sheep, and 100 
head of cattle, with little or no hay. To make the best use of the 
small available supply of fodder, the chaff-cutter must, I think, 
follow the threshing machine. Here we have a great improve- 
ment on the appliances of our forefathers, as, by attaching the 
chaff-cutter to the thresher, the labour of moving straw and 
stacking is dispensed with, all being done more easily, far better, 
and the chaff safely secured, at one operation. The chopped 
material is also much better if well trodden into a big heap — 
say, a good mow, as sweating softens the straw. If it further 
has an addition of a small quantity of fenugreek, malt dust, or 
dried grains — and some would add a little pulped mangel — a 
really valuable mass of stuff may be made from sweet straw of 
any kind. 
The cake or corn that is intended to be given I should mix 
as required for use, that is, into the bags when taken to the field. 
Sheep. — On the Cotswolds, sheep take the precedence of all 
stock, as they consume the roots where they are grown, and so 
prepare and improve the land for corn or other crops. 
The late Mr. E. Playne, of the Downs, Chalford, many 
years ago showed the Cotswold farmers how lambs could be 
wintered and well brought out with a daily allowance of 1 lb. 
per head of cotton cake and plenty of roots, but no hay. 
I would, however, suggest that the wether or fatting sheep 
should receive, say, for one hundred, 50 lb. linseed cake or 
crushed linseed, 25 lb. maize meal, and 25 lb. wheat meal per 
head per day. Every kind of stock on the farm ought to 
receive a portion of wheat to help get rid of this product, and 
so improve the price. For the ewe tegs I would use cotton 
