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.
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. Linnæus, 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.
CHAPTER VI.
ACCIDENTS AND OPERATIONS.
(104.) Sheep being about as liable as other animals to a variety of accidents, it is necessary that the shepherd should possess a competent knowledge of the means which art affords for the remedy of those mishaps. It is from a want of such knowledge that farmers are frequently led to slaughter valuable sheep, though only labouring under the effects of some commonplace disease or accident. If the animal is attended by a professional person, an expense is sure to be incurred nearly equal to the worth of the patient, and in so far as they endeavour to obviate this, by killing the sheep, they are free from blame; but why not rather contrive to save the cost of veterinary attendance, by making themselves conversant with its diseases, and able to prescribe for their own flocks, in which there can be no difficulty, as the remedies are, in the majority of cases, few, simple, and of easy application. In the surgical and medical management of flocks, much mystery has, as in other matters, all along existed; but that fantastic age is well nigh its close, and thanks to the spirit of candid inquiry now abroad, we may hope ere long to boast of valuable information in this department. The spread of correct ideas regarding the nature and treatment of accidents and diseases, has from first to last been prevented by the diffuseness of those who have written on the subject, and by their so clothing it in a mass of verbiage, as to render scarcely intelligible what would otherwise be easy of acquirement. To obviate the liability to a similar charge, the following observations are given as briefly as is consistent with a due regard to the importance of the subject.
(105.) Wounds. All the wounds which can be inflicted may be classed under the heads of incised, punctured, and lacerated.
An incised wound is one made by a cutting instrument, such as a knife or a piece of glass.
Punctured wounds are those produced by sharp pointed bodies, such as pins or thorns.