SCIENTIFIC FARMING AT ROTHAMSTED. 



385 



sheep, fifty-nine pigs, two calves, two heifers, and fourteen bullocks. 

 As the object of this investigation was to obtain average data as to 

 the proportions of the valuable carcass parts and the less valuable 

 offal parts, in animals in different conditions as to fatness, a variety of 

 animals were examined. The sheep under experiment may be grouped 

 as follows : five sheep of different breeds in the lean or store con- 

 dition ; one hundred sheep of different breeds moderately fattened ; 

 forty-five sheep of different breeds excessively fattened ; seventy- 

 eight Hants Down sheep moderately fattened on different foods ; and 

 twenty-one sheep of different breeds and modes of feeding of more 

 than average fatness. The fifty-nine pigs were moderately fattened 

 on a variety of fattening foods. 



The percentage weights of the different parts of the body of the 

 three classes of animals, and of the sheep in the store, the fat, and the 

 very fat condition, are given in the following condensed table from 

 Dr. Lawes's lecture before the Royal Dublin Society : 



It will be seen that the stomach and contents make up 11*6 per 

 cent of the live weight of the oxen, 7*5 per cent of the live weight 

 of the sheep, and but 1*3 per cent of the live weight of the pigs, while 

 the intestines and contents rank in the inverse order, giving- the high- 

 est percentage in pigs and the least with the oxen. If the stomachs 

 and intestines are taken together, we find the highest percentage in 

 the oxen and the least percentage in the pigs. These figures corre- 

 spond very closely to the relative amount of work required in the 

 digestion of the food of the different animals, which is coarse and 

 more bulky in the case of the oxen, and comparatively concentrated and 

 of higher nutritive value in the case of the pigs. The greater relative 

 development of the intestines in pigs has a probable relation to the 

 more complete assimilation of the food of these animals. As a whole, 

 the glandular and circulatory organs, which are grouped together in 

 the table, are nearly in the same proportion in the three groups of 

 vol. xxii. 25 



