16 TiiK Bulletin. 



extensive series of experiments to determine the influence of condi- 

 mental foods on the milk secretion of sheep and goats. The animals 

 experimented with were fed rations free from or low in stimulating 

 materials and rations to which condiments like fennel, fenugi-eek, 

 etc., were added. The experiments in which low-flavored rations 

 were fed to a sheep and goat, gave results indicating that the condi- 

 ments in this case may influence the composition of the milk. Fen- 

 nel appeared to cause an increase in the yield and in the fat of the 

 milk but fenugreek had apparently no effect on the milk secretion. 



Sir John Lawes'^ tested Thorley's Stock Food with sheep, sub- 

 stituting it in part for the linseed meal and cotton-seed meal of the 

 ration. "The results previously published of experiments with pigs 

 taken together with those now recorded in regard to sheep, seem 

 sufiiciently conclusive against the assumption that the use of the so- 

 called condiments increases the assimilation of food by fattening ani- 

 mals in a state of health. They are equally conclusive on the sub- 

 ject of the profit or loss to the feeder from the use of such substances. 

 Whether or not the so-called condiments may prove advantageous in 

 the cases of old, overworked, or otherwise debilitated horses, or to 

 fattening animals or poor constitution, or of weakly digestive power, 

 is quite another question. In some cases they will doubtless happen 

 to be appropriate ; but whether the beneficial results will be at- 

 tained at a gi-eater or less cost by having recourse to medicines in the 

 ordinary way, or to the use of the so-called condiments, must be left 

 to others to determine." 



Clothier, at the Kansas Experiment Station,^- conducted an ex- 

 periment with sheep to determine the effect of a condimental food. 

 Two lots of sheep were fed the same rations with the exception that 

 one lot was fed in addition a condimental stock food. At the end 

 of three weeks the lot which had received the straight ration was 

 found to have gained 117 pounds more than the lot which had re- 

 ceived the condimental food. ''Both lots received all the corn and 

 alfalfa hay they would eat, and if this condimental food were of any 

 great value, the sheep receiving it should have gained the most." 



Feeding experiments were conducted at the Ohio Experiment 

 Station,'^ to test the advisability of feeding to fattening range lambs 

 cotton-seed meal, oil meal, or Dr. Iless' Stock Food with corn. In 

 summarizing the results of the experiment the author states that 

 the lot fed stock food made slightly greater gains than did any of the 

 other lots. As to the difference in the gains in the different lots he 

 states that they are so small that it can not be said that any of the 

 rations possessed a decided superiority over any other. 



Plumb at the Indiana Experiment Station,'* conducted two sets of 



"Rothamsted Memoirs. Vol. 2, abstract by J. P. Street. New Jersey Experiment Station Bull. No. 184 



"Industrialist, 26. 1900. 34. 



"Ohio Experiment Station Bulletin No. 179. 



"Indiana Experiment Station Bulletin No. 93. 



