On increasing our Supplies of Animal Food. 359 



There was thus on the whole four years a profit on the 



Oxen of 322?. on a cost of 2916/. or II per cent. 

 Sheep 103/. „ „ 2476/. or 4^ „ 

 Pigs 253/. „ „ 751/. or 33 „ 



Do not let me be mistaken however : these sums are not net- 

 profit. It is merely the cost of purchase, of attendance, and of 

 boug-ht food (a very large item), with which these accounts are 

 debited: the expense of cultivating the green crops on which the 

 animals were fed has not been charged on them at all ; had that 

 been accounted for here, a great apparent loss would have been 

 exhibited instead of this apparent profit ; a loss, however, pro- 

 bably balanced by the value of the manure of which a great deal 

 of excellent quality is made from animals so highly fed. And, 

 neither must the proportionate nominal profit be taken accurately 

 to represent the merits of the different kinds of stock as meat 

 producers ; for independently of the fact that profit and produce 

 have rarely any direct proportion, I am by no means confident 

 that each kind of stock was debited with the actual proportion of 

 purchased food it consumed ; so that all I can possibly vouch for 

 is that the gross result is accurate ; namely, a profit, excluding^ 

 the cost of home-grown food, of 67 SI. on a cost of 6143/., that is 

 of about lOJ per cent, on the outlay. Supposing during the four 

 years our annual consumption of the farm produce in green crops 

 to have been 1000 tons, then this 678/. is all that we have got for 

 4000 tons of green food. This is about 3s. Ad. per ton — a result 

 singularly similar to some other tolerably extensive and very 

 trustworthy specimens of experience given hereafter. 



1 confess the extremely unsatisfactory character of the answer 

 to the first question that was put — what animals make the most 

 meat out of their food ? but T imagine that their respective 

 growths of offal and rapidity of return must furnish the best 

 reply ; and if so, the hog must be placed first in merit, then the 

 sheep, and lastly the ox. 



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