A a LL ol 
, 537 
TURNIP-SLICER. 
can eat a hard Swede turnip, and in such a quan- 
tity as quickly to fatten and be ready for the 
market. Indeed, if the turnips be not cut, many 
of the flock can scarcely exist, and, while in the 
midst of plenty, may be actually starving. The 
teeth of the:more aged sheep, again, from a va- 
riety of accidents and diseases to which they are 
liable, and from having been also much worn 
down by the hardness of many plants on which 
they have subsisted, are often, before they are 
put on the turnips, in a very imperfect condi- 
tion, which necessarily prevents them from ra- 
pidly taking on fat, when folded on turnips, 
according to the old way. The malformation, 
also, in the structure of the upper jaw of some 
varieties of sheep, known in Scotland by the 
name of grun-mouthed, is another reason to adopt 
the plan of feeding sheep, when folded on tur- 
nips, with these roots cut into thin, narrow 
slices.—2. The hoggs and the older sheep, when 
placed on turnips, will feed much quicker and be 
kept in a more healthy condition, when these 
roots are cut with machines into small, narrow 
slices, which they can easily take into their 
mouths, and which are placed before them in 
long wooden troughs within the fold; and they 
will sooner fill themselves, and lie down, and 
ruminate. It is certain that the less time is 
taken up in eating, the more speedily will the 
animal become fat; and that the quicker that flesh 
can be laid on, the greater economy will there 
be of food. By treating the young sheep or hoggs 
in this way, at about a year old most of them 
may be sent from the turnip field to market fit 
for the butcher. This is a very great benefit to 
the farmer, not only enabling him to increase the 
number of his sheep, but also better to prepare 
his fields for growing his grain crops.—3. Another 
signal advantage in this management of turnips, 
is that if any part of the field be poorer in its 
soil than other parts, it may be made equally 
rich and productive in bearing crops of grain and 
grass with the richer portions of the land. In 
feeding the sheep with cut turnips, they may. be 
made to stand, as long as it is wished, on any 
particular part; and by judiciously removing the 
troughs to different parts within the fold, the 
manure may be equally well distributed all over 
it. There can be no more effectual plan than 
this of improving poor, sandy, gravelly soils. The 
flock, confined within the fold, tread and render 
the earth more compact and retentive of mois- 
ture; and by their droppings, urine, and per- 
haps perspirable matters exuded from the fleeces 
while lying on the ground,.make it fitter to yield 
heavier and richer crops of grass and grain.— 
4, The carcass of the sheep is not the only part 
of the animal which is improved by this method 
of feeding; but the wool also is produced in 
greater quantity, and of better quality. The 
more improved higher condition of the sheep, in- 
fluences the quantity and quality of the fleece. 
“Tt ought never to be forgotten, that the growth 
of the wool is liable to be materially affected by 
the system of feeding pursued. It is essential to 
the evenness and strength of the staple, that the 
feeding of the animal should be uniform, without 
any sudden interruption or transition. Where 
this is suffered to take place, the natural pro- 
gress of the wool is for a while most injuriously 
interfered with. It continues to grow, but the 
new fibre is unhealthy, and becomes so weak as 
to snap under the operations of the manufac- 
turer. Much wool is injured in this way by the 
change between summer and winter keep; and 
sudden transition from rich to poor, and from 
poor to rich feeding, ought most carefully to be 
avoided.” —5. Another advantage resulting from 
this mode of feeding, is that there is a much 
smaller waste of turnip,—that we have it in our 
power to give the animals just what kind and 
quantity of food we may think proper,—that 
these useful roots, the farmer’s chief dependence 
for the winter keep of his woolly stock, may be 
preserved to a late season of the year, when pro- 
vender is most in demand for them. It is the 
opinion of good judges, that the slicing of tur- 
nips, and putting them into wooden troughs to — 
be eaten by the flock, makes these roots go far- 
ther by one-fourth than in the old way of feed- 
ing. Every part of the root is rendered eatable. 
To make the turnip, therefore, go as far as pos- 
sible in feeding stock of all kinds, whether in the 
stall, the farm-yard, or the sheepfold in the tur- 
nip field, let no farmer be without the useful 
turnip-cutting machine.—6. Wherever an expe- 
riment has been made to fold upon a turnip field 
two lots of sheep, equal in all respects as to age 
and condition, putting at Martinmas the one lot 
into one fold, the other into another, and con- 
tinuing to feed regularly the two lots,—shifting 
at stated times the fold to fresh portions of the 
field, the one lot to be fed in the usual way on 
the turnips, together with supplies of oil-cake, 
salt, and cut hay and straw, but the other to have 
the turnips cut into thin narrow slices, and placed 
in troughs before the sheep,—it will be found 
that the lot which has had the turnips supplied 
to them cut by the machine, with the oil-cake, 
salt, and cut hay and straw, will be as forward 
in the middle of February, as the former lot 
would be in April. But, should the two lots be 
kept feeding for twenty weeks, the lot which has 
had the turnips supplied cut into thin narrow 
slices, will fetch from 4s. to 5s, a-head more than 
the individuals of the other lot; and this in- 
creased value of the sheep will cover all the ex- 
pense of oil-cake, turnip machines, and the extra 
wages of attendance in working them; and a 
feeder will receive a handsome return, remuner- 
ating him for what may be held by those unac- 
quainted with this mode of feeding an extraor- 
dinary outlay. 
TURNIP-TREE. See Pacuyruizvs. 
TURNPIKE. See Roan. 
TURN-REST. See Proven, 
