698 Yeiv PoiRomn^, 
a wooden rake. Then stir and mi.^ in the remainder of the meal and gtound 
cake and round up the heap. If properly prepared the chaff becomes 
exceedingly sweet and palatable.” 
lie adds : — ■ 
“ Under the system detailed the health of the sheep is very satisfactor}'. 
In two flocks of 300 lambs each the first loss that occurred was at the end 
of January, when a lamb tumbled into the drinking-pond and was drowned." 
Mr. Evershed also found the same system answer equally 
well for breeding ewes. 
Such cases as the above are specially deserving of con- 
sideration under the peculiar set of circum.stauces unfolding 
themselves this season. The hay crop of 1892 was remarkably 
deficient, especially throughout the southern half of England, and 
although supplemented with a tolerably abundant crop of roots, 
the prices both of sheep and store cattle have fallen lower than 
has been the case for many years. This renders it desirable 
that their numbers should not be shortened on farms in general, 
and this need not take place if there be only a reasonable em- 
ployment of straw' as food for stock. , 
.loSEPH DaKHV. 
YEW POISONING. 
Whilst the yew tree has long been regarded as possessing 
poisonous properties, there nevertheless appears to exist great 
uncertainty as to whether it will or will not prove fatal to stock 
in any specific case. In the following pages the subject is dis- 
cussed by four writers, each of whom approaches it from a different 
point of view. 
In addition to the various cases which are cited below may 
be mentioned one which, at the suggestion of Mr. Anthony 
Hamond, of Westacre, has been communicated by Sir W. H. B. 
ffolkes, Bart., Hillington Hall, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, who states 
that, in November last, some pheasants “ w'hich were undoubt- 
edly poisoned by eating yew leaves ” were found “ lying on their 
breasts with their wings extended.” The writer adds : — 
“ Some years ago, when shooting through the coverts here the second 
time, we found about fifteen carcasses of pheasants under some yew trees. 
These could not have been overlooked the first time in picking up, as there 
was no stand anywhere near this place where so many pheasants could have 
been shot. My keeper informs me that it is after the pheasants have been 
disturbed by shooting that they take to perching in the yew trees. This 
may or may not be so, but at any rate, it appears that, when they take to 
