196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to man in almost every climate, aerve to re-use the carbon given 

 into the atmosphere in the form of carbonic acid. It may seem at 

 first sight strange that the humble grasses, and the corn crops, 

 reaching only a few feet from the surface of the ground, should be 

 able to take up more carbonic acid, and evolve more oxygen, over 

 an acre of land than an acre covered with forest trees. Still, 

 there can be little doubt that more carbon is fixed in an acre of 

 luxuriant wheat than over the same area of woodland ; and there 

 can be as little that an acre of sugar cane would fix more than an 

 equal area of the most luxuriant tropical forest. 



• Conclusion. 



With a few general remarks of a practical nature, I will con- 

 clude my discourse. Thg great change which has taken place in 

 the practice of feeding stock in modern times has consisted in 

 bringing the animals much earlier to maturity, by means of care- 

 ful breeding, and more liberal feeding. Scales and weights were 

 seldom used in agricultural experiments until comparatively re- 

 cently ; but there are some few records of the results of feeding 

 as practiced at the latter end of the last century, which will serve 

 us in instituting a comparison between the results then obtained 

 and those which are possible, or even common, at the present day. 



In 1794, the Duke of Bedford made some experiments to de- 

 termine the comparative feeding qualities of South Down, 

 Leicester, Worcester, and Wiltshire sheep. Twenty of each 

 were selected and weighed on November 19, 1794. To each lot 

 were allotted 16 acres of pasture, and in the winter some turnips 

 were thrown upon the pasture, and a small quantity of hay was 

 also provided. On February 16, 1796, after a period of sixty-five 

 weeks of feeding, the experiment was concluded, and the sheep 

 Bent to market. 



Over the whole period the sheep gave an average increase of 

 between 40 and 50 lbs. per head ; and as their original weight 

 was nearly 100 lbs. per head, they increased nearly 50 per cent, 

 from the store or lean to the fat condition, which is the same pro- 

 portion as that assumed in the illustrations to which Table III. 

 refers. 



Some years ago, I tried a set of experiments upon the com- 

 parative fattening qualities of South Downs, Hampshire Downs, 

 Cotswolds, Lciccsters, and cross-bred wethers, and cross-bred 

 ewes, each lot consisting of between 40 and 60 sheep. They 



