STARVING SHEEP.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13711, 28 September 1908, Page 3

STARVING SHEEP.

INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF DRY FEED AND A POSSIBLE PREVENTIVE.

To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald." Sir, —I have been much interested in the remarks that have appeared from time to time in your valuable paper in re the question of hay, straw, chaff, etc., aa means of saving starving sheep in severe winters when all other feed is inaccessible, and have come to the conclusion that, perhaps, sulphur sprinkled over the food, or added to the haystack in process of construction may be beneficial in counteracting the binding effects of diy feed. Professor Primrose McConnell uses it as an ingredient in his formulae for condimental foods for sheep, and it may possibly supply a solution of the vexed dry food problem. Sulphur, as every one knows, is one of the constituents of wool, and sheep having free access to it derive much benefit both in health and fleece. It it usually placed with the rock salt or sprinkled over it. Of course in feeding with straw chaff a handful or two of linseed meal makes the food more palatable, and prevents disastrous consequences. " Feeders " are not of much use unless the sheep have been broken in to them as hoggets, and ignorance of this fact may account for part of the mortality laid to the charge of dry food, —I am, etc., E. J. DUNCAN, Cbastleton, Raincliff.