182 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



parts of dry substance, that of the sheep contained rather less, 

 and that of the oxen rather less still. The proportion of fat also 

 was greater in the increase of the pig than in that of sheep, and 

 greater in that of the sheep than in that of the oxen. The con- 

 trary was, however, the case with the proportion of nitrogenous 

 substance, which was the greatest (9 per cent.) in the increase of 

 the oxen, less (7-5 per cent), in that of sheep, and less still {1 per 

 cent.) in that of pigs. It will be observed, too, that the per- 

 centage of mineral matter in the increase of the ox aud sheep is 

 considerably higher than in that of the pig ; and it is even rather 

 higher in the case of sheep than oxen. Independently of any 

 essential difference of structure in the different animals, this re- 

 sult is partly due to the fact that sheep and oxen, especially 

 sheep, develop bony structure during the fattening process more 

 than pigs. It is true that both sheep and pigs are, compared with 

 oxen, fattened at an early stage of their development ; but not only 

 is the pig more naturally disposed to fatten instead of grow in 

 frame very early in his career, if only liberally supplied with 

 proper food, but the practice of feeders, to meet the demands of 

 the market, is to encourage growth as well as fattening much 

 more in the case of sheep than of pigs. 



Comparing the constituents stored up in increase for a given 

 amount of dry substance of food consumed in each case, the table 

 shows that for 100 gross dry substance of food, the oxen and 

 sheep stored up less than 1 per cent., and the pigs more than 

 twice as much of nitrogenous substance ; that of fat the oxen 

 stored up only 5-2, the sheep 7, and the pigs 15-7 parts. 



Or, looking at the subject from another point of view, the last 

 column of the table shows that for 100 nitrogenous substance of 

 food consumed, the oxen and sheep stored up little more than 4, 

 but the pig about 13-6 parts ; that for 100 non-nitrogenous sub- 

 stance in food, the oxen yielded 7-2, the sheep 9-4, and the pigs 

 18-5 parts of fat in increase ; and that for 100 mineral matter con- 

 sumed, the oxen stored up 1-9, the sheep 3-1, and the pigs 7-3 

 parts. 



That a very much larger proportion of the constituents of the 

 food of the pig than of that of oxen and sheep should be stored 

 up as increase is, however, only what we should expect, when we 

 consider that the former consists of matured grain, and the latter 

 chiefly of comparatively immatured vegetable produce, containing 

 a large proportion of indigestible and woody matter, and also a 



