MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP.
(95.) Those who have attended to the subject are well aware, that the
profitable management of livestock is the most difficult department in
the business of a farm. So much depends on the nature of the locality
where sheep are kept, and on its situation in regard to markets for
the disposal of its produce, that little but what is of general
application need be written on this head. Precise rules for
agricultural conduct can seldom be laid down with any probability of
their being followed, as it must necessarily vary less or more with
the peculiar circumstances of the estate, and must, therefore, to a
great extent, be trusted to the intelligence of the farmer. All,
therefore, that I shall aim at in treating of this division, will be
the giving an outline of the more important matters connected with
sheep-husbandry, leaving the tyro to use it as circumstances may point
out. For obvious reasons, a natural arrangement of the subject is the
best; and to this, therefore, I shall, as much as possible, adhere.
(96.) _Putting Tups to Ewes._ The middle of November is the time at
which this is usually done, but the season is anticipated or delayed
according as the spring provender is expected to be early or late,
plentiful or scarce. When the sheep are spread over a wide track, one
ram is in general allotted to thirty ewes; but when the latter are on a
limited range of pasture, the proportion of one to fifty may be
reckoned ample. The rams ought not to be left with the ewes above four
or five weeks, as it does not do to have lambs dropped after the middle
of May; indeed much trouble will be saved to the shepherd if he can
contrive to have all the lambs yeaned about the same time, as the flock
will, from its numbers being of a similar standing, be healthier, and
every way easier to manage, than one in which there is a great
diversity of ages. Such ewes, therefore, as have not evinced an
inclination for the male, ought, before the above period has elapsed,
to be driven into a barn or small inclosure, and made to run about
till they have become a little heated, after which, when the ram
is introduced, the desired effect will doubtless follow. Delay will
in many cases be unavoidable, owing to the ewes being in too
high condition; but this the shepherd should try to obviate, by
administering one or two doses of Epsom salts, which, by reducing the
plethora, will increase the activity of the animal, and render it in
many ways more prone to pregnancy.
As it is an object of some importance to retard the yeaning of gimmer
hogs till the spring be well advanced, the rams are never sent to them
till a fortnight after they have been put to the older ewes. Much
nicety is always required in choosing the time at which rams mould be
put to gimmers, as they are in general sorry nurses, and sure, in bad
seasons, to lose many lambs.
When a farm is provided with suitable enclosures, careful selection of
both ewes and rams should always be attended to, taking care to make
the good points of the one remedy the defects of the other; but where
a farm is destitute of such accommodation, the next best plan is to
send the finest rams to the ewes for a few days before the rest of the
males are admitted.
Great ewes ought always to be well looked after. The driest and best
sheltered fields should be set apart for them, and turnips, when
forming part of their food, should, when they are about to yean,
always be carted to their pasture. When they roll _awald_, and cannot
regain their feet, prompt assistance should be afforded them, else
they will soon die. Death in this case occurs from suffocation, though
the morbid appearances exhibited by the carcass are frequently
mistaken for those of braxy. Udder locking ought never to be
attempted, as it often leads to abortion, and is, besides, not of the
slightest utility.
(97.) _Early Lambs._ Though in the greater number of our breeds the
arrival of the rutting season is fixed and regular, yet there are
several in which pregnancy may, by proper management, be induced at
any period. Of these the Dorsetshire and Wicklow varieties are the
most noted, and are on this account selected for the rearing of
house-lambs in the vicinity of towns, the inhabitants of which are
opulent enough to create a demand for so expensive an article.
The beginning of June is the time chosen for the admission of the
rams, so that by the month of January the greater proportion of the
ewes have yeaned. According to the plan pursued in Middlesex, "The
sheep, which begin to lamb about Michaelmas, are kept in the close
during the day, and in the house during the night, until they have
produced twenty or thirty lambs. These lambs are then put into a
lamb-house, which is kept constantly well littered with clean wheat
straw; and chalk, both in lump and in powder, is provided for them to
lick, in order to prevent looseness, and thereby preserve the lambs in
health. As a prevention against gnawing the boards, or eating each
other's wool, a little wheat straw is placed, with the ears downwards,
in a rack within their reach, with which they amuse themselves, and of
which they eat a small quantity. In this house they are kept with
great care and attention until fit for the butcher.
"The mothers of the lambs are turned, every night at eight o'clock,
into the lamb-house to their offspring. At six o'clock in the morning
these mothers are separated from their lambs, and turned into the
pastures; and, at eight o'clock, such ewes as have lost their own
lambs, and those ewes whose lambs are sold, are brought in and held by
the head till the lambs by turns suck them clean: they are then turned
into the pasture; and at twelve o'clock, the mothers of the lambs are
driven from the pasture into the lamb-house for an hour, in the course
of which time each lamb is suckled by its mother. At four o'clock, all
the ewes that have not lambs of their own are again brought to the
lamb-house, and held for the lambs to suck; and at eight, the mothers
of the lambs are brought to them for the night.
"This method of suckling is continued all the year. The breeders
select such of the lambs as become fat enough, and of proper age
(about eight weeks old) for slaughter, and send them to the market
during December and three or four succeeding months, at prices which
vary from one guinea to four, and the rest of the year at about two
guineas each. This is severe work for the ewes, and some of them die
from exhaustion. However, care is taken that they have plenty of food;
for when green food (viz. turnips, cole, rye, tares, clover, &c.)
begins to fail, brewers' grains are given them in troughs, and
second-crop hay in racks, as well to support the ewes as to supply the
lambs with plenty of milk; for if that should not be abundant, the
lambs would become stunted, in which case no food would fatten them.
"A lamb-house to suckle from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and
eighty lambs at a time, should be seventy feet long and eighteen feet
broad, with three coops of different sizes at each end, and so
constructed as to divide the lambs according to their ages."[19]
[19] Middlesex Report, p. 355.
In the county of Wicklow it is the practice to divide the twenty-four
hours by four equal periods, and to feed the lambs with ewe's milk and
cow's milk alternately. When commencing with cow's milk, a quarter of a
pint is given, twice a-day, to each lamb, and this is gradually
increased to a pint, exclusive of the milk from the ewe. This method of
feeding has been cavilled at, but I think unjustly, as the ewe is thus
saved from the bad effects of exhaustion, and the lambs are fit for the
butcher when six weeks old, or sooner.
(98.) _Lambing time._ When the ewes begin to drop their lambs, a time
which ordinarily happens in the first or second week of April, but
which, in other modes of management, must be dated twenty-two weeks
after the tupping season, the shepherd has many calls upon his skill
and watchfulness. In bad seasons, sheep are apt to prove unkind to
their offspring, and none more so than the Cheviots. In this event, the
best pastures should be selected for them, or turnips may be carted to
them; but as gimmer hogs are often quite incapable of furnishing the
necessary quantity of milk, the shepherd ought always to be provided
with a bottle of milk, which he should drop from his own mouth into
that of any lambs which may require it. Such mothers as appear to
suffer in bringing forth, should be relieved with the utmost
gentleness; and when a miscarriage occurs, if the weather be at the
same time unfavourable, the dam ought to receive the shelter of a roof.
When the ewe is lost in yeaning, her lamb, if it survive her, must be
reared by another dam. Some little artifice is always necessary to
induce a ewe to adopt the offspring of another. Covering the lamb with
the skin of her own dead one, is sometimes resorted to, but this is
hardly required, as any dam will take to another's offspring if the
parties be shut up for some time together. Ewes that are late in
lambing should be collected together, so as to be more under the care
of the shepherd, and ought to be well fed, for the sake of bringing
forward their lambs. Those lambs which are very far behind the rest
must be prepared for the butcher, as they would make but a poor figure
at the Lammas sales.
(99.) _Washing._ The time for clipping varies much, being earlier in
seasons which have been preceded by favourable weather and an unstinted
allowance of food, than in such as have followed a rigorous winter,
disease, or any other cause calculated to arrest the growth of wool.
The season may be said to be limited by the middle of May and the
middle of July; but this should not be taken as a rule of conduct, the
best guide being the state of the new coat, which ought always to be
well above the skin before shearing is attempted. The wool, unless
among some mountain flocks, is always, in this country, washed prior to
its removal from the sheep's back; but in Spain that operation is
always deferred till the fleeces have been collected, when they are
subjected to a thorough scouring, in public buildings appropriated to
the purpose, and termed _lavatories_. This is a plan in many respects
superior to ours. Its adoption by our farmers has been recommended by
Dr Parry. There cannot be a doubt of its being the preferable mode as
regards the saving it would effect in the lives of sheep; but as it is
well known that shearing is much facilitated by washing, and that on
the neatness with which the clipping is accomplished the quality of the
succeeding crop in a great measure depends, some little time will be
necessary to determine the comparative value of either mode. In New
South Wales it is customary to make the sheep swim across a stream for
two or three mornings before being washed, by which means the yolk is
softened, and the removal of grease and dirt much promoted; but this,
though a good plan in that mild and even climate, could not be looked
upon as safe in a temperature so variable as that of Britain. In cases
however, where great nicety is required, the plan in vogue in the
former country, that of dipping each sheep, before washing, into a
caldron of warm water, might be beneficially adopted.
Mountain sheep are cleaned by being forced to swim across a pool, but
the finer or lowland breeds are washed entirely by the hand. The latter
method alone demands a short explanation. Dry, and, if possible, sunny
weather, is selected for the operation, on the morning of which the
lambs are separated from the flock, and the latter is conveyed to the
margin of some pebbly-bottomed pool. Here they are penned or otherwise
kept together, while they are seized, one by one, by a man standing
mid-thigh deep near the water-edge, and turned back downwards, the head
alone being above the surface. Plate V. fig. 1.[20] It is then turned
from side to side, and moved backwards and forwards, so as to make the
wool catch upon the stream and wave about. When the first washer has
held it for a few minutes, and partially cleansed the fleece, he passes
it _up the river_ to the next, who goes through the same routine, and,
on being convinced that the skin is free from filth, compels the sheep
to land by swimming in an oblique direction up the water. Three and
even four men are sometimes employed in washing sheep, but two, as here
described, will, under ordinary circumstances, be found sufficient. The
bank on which the dripping sheep are collected, should have a clean and
firm turf, and the flock should, till fairly dry and fit for shearing,
be kept on heavy grass land, or, what is better, in straw-bedded folds.
[20] For the figures 1, 2 and 3 in Plate V. I am indebted to
the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_ for 1832, p. 869.
(100.) _Shearing._ After allowing eight days, off or on, to elapse from
the time of washing, so as to permit the wool to gain a fresh supply
of yolk, and along with it lustre and elasticity, the sheep may be
stripped of its fleece. As there is no saving in employing an unskilful
clipper, every encouragement should be given to induce servants to cut
close, smoothly and evenly, and to avoid injuring the skin, or going
twice over the same part. There are two ways in this country of
depriving sheep of their wool. In the first, or coarser method, which
is only adopted in the case of Cheviot and heath sheep, the operator
sits upon the ground, and placing the animal on its back between his
knees, shears the wool first from the belly and legs, and then, after
tying the latter, proceeds to clear the back. In the second method, the
legs are never tied, as the disposition of the sheep is such as to
render it unnecessary. The animal is placed as in Fig. 2, Plate V., and
the shearer clips first one side, cutting from the middle of the belly
to that of the back, down to the loins. It is then placed on its side,
as in Fig, 3, Plate V., the knee of the operator pressing on its neck,
and the wool is removed from the legs and buttocks. The fleece is next
rolled up, with the cut side outwards, commencing at the tail, and
using the wool of the other extremity as a fastening for the bundle.
A cool dry apartment should be selected in which to store the wool,
always remembering that _heat_ and _damp_ are equally injurious to it,
and that the greater the perfection in which it retains its _natural
oily moisture_, the more valuable will it prove both to the grower and
the manufacturer.
(101.) _Weaning_, where milking is not practised, ought to be set about
in the end of July or beginning of August. In some places the ewe lambs
are never speaned, but allowed to go at large with their mothers; and
though by this plan the dam is apt to be kept in poor condition, yet is
this counterbalanced by the comparative freedom of the hogs from braxy.
As an improvement, however, the gimmer lambs may be withheld for a
fortnight from their mothers, and at the end of that time may be
permitted to pasture with them. In the few places where the farmer
continues to manufacture ewe-milk cheese and butter, speaning is
carried into effect somewhat earlier, and is of course attended, in the
long run, with no little detriment to the stock and its proprietor. The
sooner that the practice be laid aside the better; for though ewe-milk
cheese is pretty universally relished and admired, yet those who are
acquainted with the scenes which happen at the bughts, know well that
the cheese itself cannot but contain much, the mere mention of which
would pall at once the appetite even of the least fastidious. In
addition to this, a great waste of grass is occasioned by the sheep
going to and from the bught, while the inconveniences they are on every
hand exposed to, at a season when they are peculiarly liable to disease
and accident, ought of themselves to lead to the abolition of the
practice.
When the udders of the ewes appear, after their separation from the
lambs, to be much distended, they may be once or twice milked, to
prevent bad consequences; but it is much better to obviate the
necessity for this, by reducing their allowance of food for a few days.
When the animal seems to suffer much irritation about the udder, it
will always be safe to give a brisk dose of any of the common saline
purgatives.
The store lambs are at this period sent to good pasture, or, where the
farm cannot afford it, are _summered_ at a distance; that is to say,
the farmer pays so much a head for permission to feed his flock, during
a couple of months, on another person's ground, at the end of which
period they are turned upon the pasture which has just been vacated by
the gimmers, they having been sent to join the older ewes.
(102.) _Smearing_, in those places where it is still carried on, is
performed in two ways, according to the quality of the wool.
_Slipping_, as the one method is termed, is only employed in high, wet
districts, where the sheep are covered with long wool; while _rolling_,
as the other is usually called, is only required for such as, in dry
situations, are surrounded by a short close pile. In pursuing the
former plan, the smearer takes up the mixture on the forefinger of his
right hand, and while holding the locks of wool apart with his arms and
left hand, allows the salve to drop into the groove or shed, along
which it is spread by the other fingers.
In _rolling_, a small quantity only of smearing stuff is raised on the
_point_ of the forefinger, with which it is laid evenly upon the skin.
This is by far the neater way of salving, as less of the ointment is
permitted to get upon the wool; but as it is altogether a tardier
process, it is not so frequently resorted to.
November is the month usually chosen for this operation, but as it
cannot be properly done unless the day fixed upon has been preceded by
dry weather, the time ought rather to be selected by the aspect of the
season.
The composition of smearing stuffs is so very various, that it is quite
beyond my power to give the reader even a list of the ordinary
ingredients and their proportions; nor need I recommend any of them in
particular to the attention of the shepherd, knowing, as I do, the
bigoted opinions which are held upon the subject, and the aversion with
which every one regards a mixture not of their own composing. I can
only observe, that where tar is employed, it ought to be well diluted
with grease, so as to enable two English quarts of it to be spread over
six sheep. In this way it will be less liable to adhere to the wool,
and will be much more readily laid upon the skin. When sheep are salved
without due attention to the even spreading of the mixture, the insects
with which the skin is infested are, instead of being destroyed,
allowed here and there a resting place; and as the severity of their
attack is in proportion to the limited nature of their range, the skin
at these points soon becomes crusted with scabs. The smaller the
quantity of tar employed, as consistent with the keeping down of
vermin, so much the better, as the wool is of more value to the
manufacturer, the sheep is saved the discomfort of having its fleece
plastered and matted, and the shepherd is spared the vexation of losing
lambs through their inability to reach an udder surrounded by locks of
hard and tangled wool.
(103.) _Fatting._ The age at which sheep are prepared for the butcher
depends upon the breed, its situation, and its propensity to take on
fat. The heath sheep may be considered as requiring to be the greatest
length of time in the hands of the farmer, and the Leicesters as the
reverse; wethers of the former variety being usually disposed off when
from three to four years old, and ewes when from four to five; while
wethers of the latter kind are fit for market often at eighteen months,
and the ewes are in general fed off after the third year.
Sheep, in spring and autumn, are peculiarly liable to diseases of the
intestines, a circumstance mainly to be ascribed to the changes which
are, in these seasons, constantly occurring in the nature of their
food. Much of this is owing to careless management in the economy of
the pastures, and to restricting them for great lengths of time to one
kind of provender, a thing guarded against by all good breeders. Sudden
transitions, however, from a poor to a nutritive pasture, and the
reverse, are always bad, and therefore to be avoided; but change of
feeding ground, with these restrictions, cannot be too much
inculcated--it is, in fact, the soul of sheep husbandry. The bleakest
portions of a farm should be pastured off in autumn, so as to reserve
the sheltered spots for winter use. The cast ewes may then be drafted
off to feed on a more succulent herbage, previous to being penned on
turnips.
Most of the points worthy of attention in sheep feeding having already
been detailed in the article on _Crossing_, I shall only add a few
particulars in regard to management on turnips.
When sheep are fed on turnips, they are in general confined to a
particular portion of the field by nets or hurdles. The latter, when
made of Scotch fir, cost about a shilling each; but, when constructed
of larch, the price is fourteen-pence. Those made of larch are by far
the more durable, and will last three years if kept under cover during
summer. Two men are required to set them up, besides a horse and cart
to take them to the field, on which account nets have a decided
preference, being easy of transportation, and requiring little
house-room. Though valuable in windy situations, nets cannot be used to
enclose horned sheep, as their heads become entangled with the cords.
They will seldom serve for more than three years, but as they cost only
threepence per yard, they may be considered as every way cheaper than
hurdles.
When the turnips allotted to the sheep, which seldom exceed a week's
supply, are consumed, another portion of the field is enclosed; while
the shells are torn up with a two-pronged hook, and either left there
to be consumed by the flock, or carted to another field for the use of
sheep not then intended to be fattened. A fresh supply should always be
afforded them before the old one is eaten clean, otherwise their
fattening will be much retarded. It is usual to allow them at the same
time plenty of salt, placed up and down the field in troughs or
boxes,[21] and about a ton of hay in the ten or fourteen days, to every
hundred sheep; though that number, if supplied with what, and permitted
to run about, will consume that quantity in a week. In spring, from
half a pound to a pound of oil cake is given daily to each of them,
along with turnips.
[21] Old casks, wanting ends, form the best of all contrivances
for holding salt for sheep, as when laid on their sides, and
retained in that position by stakes, they allow the sheep free
admission, at the same time that the salt is defended from
rain.
In places where the cold during spring is any way severe, the Swedish
turnip ought always to be preferred for feeding sheep, as from the
formation of the upper part of the bulb, water cannot collect within it
as it does in other varieties, to their serious injury when frost sets
in.
Turnips must be cut for such sheep as are shedding their teeth. The
mouths of those that refuse to eat them should be examined, that in the
event of a tooth being loose or broken it may be removed. Occasionally
a sheep will be unable to gnaw a turnip, owing to a peculiar formation
of the head, the lower jaw being so very short as to give the profile
some resemblance to that of a pig. Such deformed animals are said in
this quarter to be _grun_-(ground)-mouthed: I believe from the
elongation of the nose suiting them better for poking in the earth than
for feeding in the usual way.
The fattening of sheep on turnips is much promoted by their having
access to a grass field, more especially if it happen to contain whins
or heather. It is from want of attention to this that sheep are so
liable to disease when eating turnips, for, apart from the benefit that
accrues to them from a dry lair, they are enabled to turn their food to
better account when consuming bitter herbs. It is no unusual thing for
turnip-fed sheep and cattle to become quite lean, as the farmers say,
"almost at the lifting," for no other reason than that they have been
confined too strictly to one article of diet. They have been denied
access to plants containing of all things the one most necessary for
the maintenance of their health--_bitter extractive matter_--as it is
called by chemists--without a due proportion of which the most
nutritious substances cannot be turned to account. "As an essential
ingredient in the provender of herbivorous animals, it may, I think, be
admitted as a fact, that its importance is _in an inverse ratio_ with
the nutritive powers of the food."[22] Thus accounting for the length
of time that sheep will continue to thrive on turnips alone.
[22] Paris's Pharmacologia, sixth edition, vol. i. p. 147.
With all the advantages, however, which accrue to the sheep when on
turnips, from the quantity of nutritive matter which these roots
contain, its progress when restricted to them frequently falls very far
short of the expectations of the owner. In the greater number of
instances, also, farmers are unable to account for their want of
success in this department, so that I may be excused for endeavouring
to point out, at some length, the causes of their failure. To
proceed:--
The point in sheep management in which our farmers are most deficient,
is turnip-feeding; one upon which most will pique themselves as being
perfect, though, speaking guardedly, hardly one man in twenty
understands the rudimentary principles on which sheep-feeding should be
conducted. They are unacquainted with the habits of the wild animal,
and, unlike any other class of men, interest themselves little in the
fundamental study of their calling. There is not a showman, or a
bird-fancier, but knows to a tittle the peculiarities of the creature
that he has in charge, and endeavours, to the best of his ability, to
provide such food as its instincts crave. Not so, however, with the
store-farmer. He cares not to inquire whether the sheep is naturally
calculated to subsist on one kind of nutriment; and if so, whether they
will, when left to the exercise of instinct, resort to turnips of their
own accord; whether the sheep is usually restricted to confined
localities similar to our fields, or is the unrestrained rover over an
extensive pasture. Yet it is from investigations of this kind that we
are to derive our mode of treating sheep, and are to form plans
beneficial to ourselves, from their being, in a manner, improvements
upon nature. We find, from a perusal of the works of travellers, and
from the anatomical peculiarities of the sheep, that it is fitted for
residence in countries precipitous in surface, and scantily supplied
with herbage; consequently, it must range over a vast extent of ground
for a subsistence, and its food must, owing to the varied features of
the country, consist, not of one or of a few plants, but of a most
extensive mixture of herbage. Experiment also points out that the
deductions from these observations are correct. Sheep, in fact, consume
a greater number of plants than any other domestic animal. Linnaeus, in
examining into this subject, found, by offering fresh plants to such
animals, in the ordinary mode of feeding, that horses ate 262 species,
and refused 212; cattle ate 276 species, and refused 218; while sheep
took 387 species, and only refused 141. We find, too, great difficulty
in preventing sheep from springing over the dykes and hedges that we
place as boundaries to their rambling habits, yet how seldom do we see
the true cause of their determination to set them at defiance. We may
partly account for it by considering their analogy to the goat, and
their propensity to scale rugged eminences; but I think these movements
rather indicate an anxiety to change a pasture already exhausted of
variety, for fresh fields, and herbage abounding in that miscellaneous
provision which nature apparently reckons essential for them. Shepherds
own as much, and will tell you that frequent change of pasture is the
soul of sheep husbandry, though they see no reason why sheep should not
be kept for many successive weeks on a patch of turnips. They admit the
necessity of a frequent shifting in the one case, but deny it in the
other. Magendie, a celebrated French physiologist, has shown, by
experiment, that it is impossible to keep an animal in a healthy state
longer than six weeks on one article of diet, death frequently taking
place even before the end of that period; but our sheep-farmers, in
happy ignorance of the fact, confine their flocks for months to turnips
only. And what, may I ask them, is the consequence of the practice?
Why, that it is not unusual to meet with sheep-owners who lose at least
one out of every fifteen, and all owing, as may easily be proved, to
this mode of management. In the first place, the turnip is a kind of
food entirely foreign to the nature of the sheep, and one to which, at
first, they evince great repugnance. There are many varieties of sheep
incapable of feeding on turnips, owing to the form of the face, the
upper-jaw projecting considerably past the lower, hindering the
chisel-shaped teeth from being brought to bear upon the root. None of
our British breeds certainly have this as a regular feature,
nevertheless they are liable to it; and there are few farmers that have
not, several times in their lives, met with _grun-mouthed_ sheep, as
they are called in Scotland, from their profile resembling that of the
pig, and suiting them for poking in earth, rather than for eating in
the usual way. Again, if the structure of the sheep's mouth proves that
it is not adapted for eating turnips, the composition of the turnip no
less satisfactorily shows that it is not calculated as food for sheep.
Bitterness is essentially necessary in the food of all herbivorous
animals; without it, indeed, they sooner or later fall into ill health.
This property is shown by chemists to reside in the extractive matter
of plants, which has, therefore, been called _bitter extractive_. The
quantity is also found to be in the inverse ratio of the nutritive
powers of the plant; that is to say, where the plant abounds in
alimentary matter, the proportion of bitter extractive is small,
compared with what it is where the former is deficient. Turnips contain
a large quantity of matter capable of affording nourishment to the
body, but they yield little or none of the bitter principle. In
consequence of this, sheep acquire fat rapidly for a time, when placed
on turnips; but, experiencing a want of the medicinal bitter, begin
with equal rapidity to lose the advantages they so recently gained.
Their appetite becomes depraved, and, from being shut out from access
to the stomachic intended for them by nature, they take to devouring
earth, or any substance capable of serving as a substitute for it.
"With regard to the natural use of bitter extractive, it may be laid
down as a truth, that it stimulates the stomach,--corrects putrefying
and unwholesome nutriment,--promotes tardy digestion,--increases the
nutritive powers of those vegetable substances to which it is
united,--and furnishes a natural remedy for the deranged functions of
the stomach in particular, and through the sympathetic medium of that
organ, for the atony of remote parts in general."[23] All, indeed,
concur in setting a high value on this constituent of plants--all, with
the exception of those whose interests are most deeply concerned in a
knowledge of its importance. Farmers, in general, cannot perceive the
utility of attending to concerns apparently so trifling, though in the
right conduct of these they depend materially for success. Nay, I have
known men arguing, that in six weeks they have given ordinary sheep an
excellent coating of fat, by keeping them on turnips only; though, on
strict inquiry being made into the nature of the field in which they
had been penned, it has always turned out that the sheep had access to
other things, their owners having wilfully shut their eyes to the true
circumstances of the case. Depend on it, no sheep will continue in
health during six weeks on turnips alone, much less will it continue
throughout that time to take on fat. Much of the mischief attending a
want of bitter matter is obviated by the plan of allowing the sheep
corn, salt, oilcake, and hay, which, serve, especially the last, as
tolerable substitutes for it. Good hay ought always to be plentifully
supplied to sheep on turnips, as, from the variety of the plants
composing it, it contains much that is not to be found in turnips.
Besides, one of the most useful bitters with which we are acquainted
(the _Bogbean--Menyanthes Trifoliata_) occurs in meadow hay, and is a
plant sufficient of itself to save the animal from the consequences of
neglect. Whenever you hear of remarkable instances of sheep becoming
quickly fat on turnips, you may safely believe they have had liberty to
nibble something in addition to the ordinary provender. They have had
access to broom or whins, perhaps only to bushes that are laid as a
defence on dykes, or only to the scanty pickings on the edges of
fields--still they have by such means in a manner satisfied the craving
for bitter aliment, and enabled their stomachs to turn to better
account the otherwise unprofitable turnips. Broom is at all times an
excellent medicine for sheep, and one which they are partial to, and
which ought, therefore, to be placed, if possible, within their reach.
[23] Paris's Pharmacologia, vol. i. p. 146.