Agricultural Chemistry — ^heep- Feeding and Manure. 30 1 



Taking the aggregate results of this Table, and again assuming 

 the approximate correctness of the estimate of the nitrogen con- 

 tained in the increase of animal produced, we find that by the 

 feeding of 20 sheep for 19 weeks, during which time they con- 

 sumed 665 lbs. of oil-cake, 665 lbs. of linseed, 665 lbs. of barley, 

 625 lbs. of malt, and 7965Jlbs. of clover- hay, the amount of 

 increase obtained is calculated to retain only 16|lbs. of nitrogen, 

 though 246 lbs. of it were supplied in the food, a result in this 

 respect considerably inferior to that obtained in the first series of 

 experiments, there being in that case 15^ lbs. of nitrogen retained 

 for 96 lbs. of it swallowed. We may notice too in this place, though 

 the point will presently be referred to in another form, that here 

 again it would appear, as in the case of the former series, that the 

 larger the amount of nitrogen consumed beyond a certain limit, 

 the smaller will be the -proportion of it sent to market as meat. 

 The case of the malt in the 2nd Series is, however, somewhat 

 exceptional — a fact to which we shall again refer. 



The amounts of dry -organic-matter consumed in each pen 

 during the entire period of the experiment, as shown in the 

 Table, when considered in connection with the nature of that 

 contained in each of the special foods supplied, and with the 

 total amount of nitrogen consumed, are such as pretty clearly to 

 indicate that the consumption of the clover- hay, which was sup- 

 plied ad libitum, was regulated to a great extent by the demand 

 of the system for, or its competency to take up, digestible non- 

 nitrogenous substances. Thus there were 544-^- lbs. of dry 

 organic substance contained in the oil-cake, and 577 lbs. in the 

 linseed, whilst of the smaller amount taken in the oil-cake there 

 would be a much larger quantity indigestible and at once effete, 

 and hence we find that more clover is consumed to make up the 

 deficiency. Again, taking the pens upon barley and malt, we 

 find the total amount of dry-organic-matter in these foods re- 

 spectively to be 553i and 558 J lbs. — a difference of only 5 lbs. ; 

 and although in the one case there would be a predominance of 

 starch, and in the other of sugar, yet the amounts of matters 

 capable of digestion, and of those which are at once effete, would 

 probably be very nearly identical, and hence we have a differ- 

 ence of only 10 lbs. in the total amount of dry-organic-matter 

 consumed in the form of clover-hay : and, taking the two foods 

 of each pen together, there is only a difference of 5 lbs., equal to 

 only \ per cent, in the amount of dry-organic-matter consumed in 

 the two cases. Throughout all four of the pens, indeed, the 

 coincidence in that respect is very manifest, when the apparently 

 excessive amount in Pen 1 is explained as above. 



That the demand of the system for nitrogen had little to do in 

 determinino: the amount of clover consumed, is evident from the 



