278 Agricultural CJicmistry — Sheep-Feeding and Manure. 



upon a farm, and In what forin, and in what proportions, some of 

 their most important constituents come to be available for the 

 market — thus taking' into account the quantities and qualities of 

 the manure obtained, as a consideration by no means less essential 

 in estimating the comparative value of different foods, than that 

 of the amount of meat produced. Looking at the subject in this 

 point of view, it has not been our special aim so much to deter- 

 mine between one food and another as suck, or between this or 

 that mode of preparation, as to select those the general value and 

 applicability of which are well recognised. Some information on 

 these points will nevertheless be afforded by our results ; and, as 

 the question of the comparative feeding values of barley and malt 

 has of late been much discussed, several comparative trials have 

 been made with them, and the results of these will be more fully 

 detailed and considered than would otherwise have been necessary, 

 on account of the general interest at present excited by the 

 subject. 



The experiments upon feeding were commenced early in 1847, 

 and bullocks and pigs were the animals first selected. It was 

 soon found, however, that the former were in several respects ill 

 suited to our purpose. Owing to their great bulk, and the large 

 amount of food consumed and of manure produced, it was im- 

 practicable to keep such a number under exact experiment at the 

 same time as would ensure anything like an average constitution 

 of animal, and it was deemed unsafe and useless to rely upon the 

 results of a single animal on each description of food. Bullocks, 

 moreover, are sometimes very unmanageable, and as it was 

 essential to our object frequently to put the animals in the scales, 

 this was a material objection ; though by usage indeed, those even 

 which are at first the most violent and refractory become compa- 

 ratively quiet and easy of management. Thus — four bullocks were 

 taken for experiment, of which the first weighing took several 

 hours, yet they were after a short time weighed daily without any 

 difficulty whatever, the animals frequently running playfully into 

 the scales as soon as they were let loose. In consequence how- 

 ever, it is supposed, of too frequent weighings and other sources 

 of disturbance incidental to experiment, these animals gave but a 

 very small increase, and, owing to this circumstance and to the 

 difficulty of fairly sampling, arising from their great bulk and 

 weight, no analyses were made of their food and excrements. 

 The pigs gave a tolerable increase, but no attention was paid to 

 their excrements, as they had not been fed ujwn ordinary food 

 alone, but upon the dried flesh of the whale which remains after 

 the extraction of the oil, and which is used in Newfoundland as 

 fuel. The animals increased upon it remarkably fast for a time, 

 l)ut it required a considerable dilution with other food, otherwise 



