190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



drainage — the best qualities of the soil strained into the milk pail, 

 and sent to the distant market. 



So, too, the work of our farms will always require that a certain 

 number of horses be raised — but I think no man would be ready 

 to hazard the assertion, that the grass, hay, and grain of our fields 

 can be profitably sent to market in the form of horse flesh. And 

 it may be questioned whether those gentlemen, who with wealth 

 accumulated in other branches of business, are now raising horses 

 under the most favorable circumstances, find that their investments 

 make such returns as would enable a man of more limited means 

 to live thereby. New England farmers are every year placed 

 under immense obligations to this class of liberal minded gentle- 

 men, since they are thereby, at small expense, enabled to improve 

 the quality of their own horses, which, from their present mixed 

 condition as regards blood, are so liable to constant deterioration. 

 These men are public benefactors, and long may their love of a 

 beautiful horse blind their eyes to the meagre returns they receive 

 for their labors. 



In order now to learn what sheep, when well cared for, will do 

 for the New England farmer, we must first look at them, as meat 

 producing animals, compared with cattle. 



In the examination of this question science fortunately comes 

 to our aid, and gives us safe and reliable guidance. 



We are indebted to Messrs. Lawes. and Gilbert, the distin- 

 guished farmer chemists of Rothampstead, England, for the most 

 extensive and perfect series of experiments that have ever been 

 instituted, to demonstrate the actual mean weights of our domes- 

 tic animals, in the various stages in passing from a lean to a fat 

 condition, and to ascertain the whole efifect of food upon them. 

 Hundreds of oxen, cows and sheep, were slaughtered to furnish 

 the necessary data, in these exj)criments. The amount of food 

 consumed in fattening was carefully noticed, and its effect upon 

 each animal. These examinations were even carried so far as to 

 enable them to determine the proportions of all the diflerent organs 

 and parts of the bodies, in the different classes of animals, and to 

 estimate the percentage of dry substance, and of water in the 

 carcass, and in the offal respectively. 



The amount of care, labor, patience and capital devoted to these 

 experiments, entitle them to our fullest confidence. 



As a starting point in our comparison between sheep and cattle, 

 we find from Mr. Lawes' experiments that the proportion of dry 



