NUTRITION AND FERTILITY 375 



In a third case the ewes (half-bred) were placed upon 

 superior pasture at tupping, and from that time onwards until 

 lambing they were supplied with hay and turnips. Previous 

 to tupping they were fed upon grass alone. The rams (Border 

 Leicester, Oxford Down, and Cheviot) were treated similarly to 

 the ewes before and during tupping. The percentage of lambs 

 per ewes 1 was as high as 196. Out of 184 ewes 23 had triplets. 

 Two ewes aborted and one was barren. 



In another experiment 60 ewes were placed upon rape and 

 seeds at tupping time. Of these, 54 produced either twins or 

 triplets at the following lambing, the proportion far exceeding 

 that in the other sheep which were upon the same farm but 

 not similarly treated. 



The Highland Society's investigation is still in progress, 

 and a full report will not be issued until next year. In the 

 meantime it may be stated that further experiments fully 

 confirm the conclusion that stimulation of the generative organs 

 of sheep by a system of special feeding at the beginning of the 

 breeding season results in an increased crop of lambs at the 

 following lambing season. The twins appear almost invariably 

 to have been born early during lambing, thus showing that the 

 reproductive activity of the ewes is usually greatest at the 

 beginning of the breeding season. 



There is abundant evidence also that flushing tends to hasten 

 the time for breeding. It has been shown recently that the 

 condition of "heat" in animals is probably brought about 

 through the action of an internal secretion or chemical excitant 

 elaborated by the ovaries. 2 It would seem, therefore, that the 

 artificial feeding exercises a stimulating influence over the 

 secretory activity of the ovaries, while at the same time pro- 

 moting the more rapid growth and maturation of the follicles, 

 and causing a larger number to discharge their ova at the 

 earlier "heat" periods of the breeding season. 



It has so far proved more difficult to obtain precise informa- 

 tion regarding the effects of flushing in one season upon the 

 fertility of the sheep in after-years. The more usual experience 

 of those flockmasters who have practised flushing appears to be 

 that this process is not in any way detrimental unless it is over- 



1 That is to say, the number of lambs per ioo ewes. 



2 Marshall and Jolly, Phil. Trans. B,vol. cxcviii. 1905. Cf. also Knauer, Arch. 

 /. Gynak. vol. lx. 1899 ; and Halban, S.B. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. ex. 1901. 



