Live Stock Breeders' Association. 



187 



but 8.77 pounds. In this experiment the results are clearly against 

 the use of the self-feeder. The total gains made and the amount 

 of food required to produce a given increase in weight all seem to 

 be distinctly favorable to the practice of regular and systematic 

 feeding conducted with judgment on the part of the attendant. 



TABLE 5. 

 THREE YEARS FEEDING WITH A SELF-FEEDER. 



TABLE 6. 

 THREE YEARS FEEDING CORN — REGULAR FEEDING. 



Tables 5 and 6 contain the average results of three years' ex- 

 periments with lambs fed corn and clover hay and supplied in the 

 ordinary manner. The results are reduced to the uniform period 

 of twelve weeks. In every instance the lambs fed at regular in- 

 tervals (table 6) made the greatest gains and produced those gains 

 at the least expense of dry matter. The experiments are quite 

 conclusive, extending as they do over a period of three years under 

 varying conditions and with different lots of sheep. We are led 

 to the conclusion that fattening lambs by means of a self-feeder 

 is an expensive practice, and that economy of production requires 

 more attention to the variation in the appetites of the animals than 

 can be given by this method. 



