139 



no feed but that which was weighed out to them. Salt and 

 water were kept before them constantly. No tobacco was 

 used throughout the winter months, but perhaps it would 

 have been wise to have used it. They were fed twice daily. 

 The ewes were pregnant, and of course did not all lamb 

 upon the same date. When one dropped a lamb she was 

 taken out of her lot and put into a third lot, where the 

 object was to learn how much the feed must be increased to 

 maintain a ewe while milking. 



The following table tabulates the results of the winter 

 work— 190G-'0T : 



Table 1. Cotton seed meal and hulls versus Soy Bean hay 

 for wintering pregnant eu'^s. 



Av Xo. ewes Feed eaten Total gain Cost cf fetd 

 Lot. Ration. for 106 daily per each ewe for per ewe per 



days ewe 106 days month 



Lds. 



< i Cotton seed meal ) - o 0.5 



^ ■(! Cotton seed hulls/ ''^ 1.3 



2 Soy bean hay.... 6.4 1.9 



The ewes were not, of course, given all they could eat. 

 The object was to feed them only enough to maintain them, 

 that is, to keep them from either losing or gaining in 

 weight throughout the winter months. The above ewes 

 gained between one and two pounds each during the entire 

 winter. It would, no doubt, have been better if they had 

 been given enough feed to have made them gain from six 

 to eight pounds each, as each one had to develop a foetus 

 which weighed from five to nine pounds at birth. 



The farmer could have cheapened the ration of lot 1. the 

 cotton seed meal lot, by not feeding as much cotton seed 

 meal as was fed. in the test. It would have been cheaper to 

 have cut down the meal and increased the hulls, but a large 

 amount of meal was used in the test so that it would be 

 possible to collect some data upon the effect of rather large 

 daily feeds of cotton seed meal upon the health of the ewes. 

 In this ip<f the f^otton .^eed meal ration was fixed at one- 



