THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



99 



1-2 stones live-fasted weight eacli. They were bought 

 by the same butcher, and at the same price, viz., X'S 

 each. The dead weights were : 



Mr. Tuite'8 three sheep —carcasses 315 11)3. 



„ „ iuside fat 48 lbs. 



My own three sheep — carcasses 302 Ibi. 



inside fat. 



43 lbs. 



So that by feeding a year more, his produced only 41b. 

 5 oz. of meat, lib. 10 oz. inside fat, or about 3s. more of 

 value on each sheep, an amount, as in this case, not suffi- 

 cient to affect the selling price. 



Now let us compare the cost of feed. Mr. Tuite's 

 were fed in his park at Sanna until about six weeks be- 

 fore the show, when they were put on rape, but received 

 no bought food whatever. Mine were kept upon pas- 

 ture not above a-third of the value of his park at Sanna 

 until July 25, when I began to give them as much oil- 

 cake as they could eat, and latterly half-a-pint of oats 

 per diem. They were, therefore, for four months 

 strongly forced. On the 1st May, 1858, I valued my 

 hoggets at £2 ; they immediately afterwards gave 

 me each 71bs. of wool, which sold for lis., and they 

 then stood me for fattening at 29s. Although the South- 

 downs which I imported from Sussex used to give me 

 only from 3z to olbs. of wool, yet, as I have no proof 

 of what Mr. Tuite's sheep clipped, I will assume that 

 his sheep in their hogget year were started shorn at the 

 same value, 29s. ; I will also assume what I believe to be 

 pretty nearly the value of the year's average keep of 

 such a sheep as 20s., and at this rate the cost of Mr. 

 Tuite's sheep will have been £2 19s. My three 

 wethers consumed in addition to the same charge, 

 for 



£. 8. d. 



Pasturage Oil 3 



15 stoue 1 lb. oilcake 1 9 



2 stone 2 lb. oats 2 



Each 



Coat at May. 



1 It 

 1 9 



£3 3 

 I therefore got in nineteen months within 4s. of what 

 Mr. Tuite got in thirty months, and if early maturity, 

 the mother of the tripping sixpence, is the farmer's 

 great object, I think I have put my sheep in the first 

 place, though the judges put them in the second. As 

 to the quality of mutton, that must always be a matter 

 of taste ; but I believe that though a saddle of five- 

 year-old Southdown mutton (that aristocratical myth), 

 from its acknowledged superiority, is a worthy prelude 

 to such a bottle of port or 34 Lafitte as may have lain 

 in the cellars of Sanna for twenty years, doubling its 

 price at compound interest, yet that the same compound 

 interest will have worked up the mutton to above Is. 

 per pound, and if the butcher made no objection to 

 giving Is. per pound, I would keep my sheep on for 

 him, not otherwise ; and I also believe that hogget mut- 

 ton is really superior to two shear, though inferior to 

 three shear ; and know that the London and Brighton 

 butchers seldom get Southdown mutton to kill much 

 older than twenty months, whatever they may subse- 

 quently call it, to please old-fashioned customers. 

 I am now going to tread upon mOre delicate ground, 



though I fully feel how dangerous it is to draw con- 

 clusions from isolated experiments ; but as the value of 

 artificial food is a matter of such vital importance to the 

 farmers, I think it may be useful to throw out the fol- 

 lowing observations, in order to lead others who have 

 more opportunity to multiply and reason upon them 

 more extensively. 



The experience of the practical farmer has long ago 

 convinced him that bought food does not pay for itself 

 in the increase of beef and mutton, but that a manifest 

 improvement takes place in pastures where sheep have 

 been fed with oilcake. 



The natural question for the farmer to ask is, how 

 much of the cost of the oilcake consumed am I to charge 

 to the animal, and how much to the pasture ? In my 

 own case how much of the £\ 2s. 9d. paid for oilcake 

 and oats, with the whole of which I have debited my 

 sheep, ought really to have gone to the debit of the pas- 

 tures, as compared with the top-dressing of guano which 

 Mr. Ilorsfall proves to be so remunerative ? 



If we refer to the able article of Messrs. Lawes and 

 Gilbert, " On the composition of some of the animals 

 fed and slaughtered as human food" (proceedings of the 

 Royal Society, June 17, 1858), we find the following 

 conclusion from an extensive series of accurate ex- 

 periments and analyses : — 



" Taking first the proportion of each class of consti- 

 tuents stored up for 100 of the same consumed, it is 

 concluded that in the case of sheep liberally fed on a 

 mixed diet of dry and succulent food, the iccrease of the 

 animals will, perhaps, generally carry off less than 5 per 

 cent, of the consumed mineral matter ; somewhere 

 about 5 per cent, (varying according to the proportion 

 in the food) of the consumed nitrogenous compound 

 substance in the food ; and lastly, that for every 100 of 

 collective dry substance of food consumed there will be 

 in sheep about 8 or 9 parts of dry matter in increase 

 stored up." It. is clear from this that out of my ^1 2s. 

 9d. worth of food the sheep have had value in only 2s. 

 9d. What has become of the rest ? 



The average daily consumption of my wethers was, of 



Oilcake .. U lb. 



Oats 0| lb. 



In the first experiment, which was made to determine 

 the amount and manurial value of the solid excrement, 

 one of the wethers was compared with a ewe, same age 

 and size, which had never had any feed but grass ; they 

 were kept for 48 hours on a clean floor, and the dung 

 was carefully collected as often as possible ; it weighed 

 for the 



Wether .. .. 6 lbs. 7 oz, or 3 lbs. 3^ oz. [icr diem 

 Ewe 5 lbs. 15 oz., or 2 lbs. 15^ oz. „ 



The same sheep were subsequently placed in a sheep 

 shed, the bottom of which consisted ol' spars, which en- 

 abled me to collect all the urine which passed during 

 24 hours ; it was collected frequently, and carefully 

 guarded against evaporation, and the amount measured 

 in a glass vessel graduated for water (I do not make the 

 slight correction on account of the specific gravity) was, 

 for the 



AVelher 2 lb J. lU oz. 



Ewe 3 lbs, 11 oz. 



