344 REPORT—1 852. 
varying character of the several breeds as fatteners, greater differences might 
have been expected; for, in some cases a less or larger proportion of the 
gross increase would be solid substance than in others; whilst this solid sub- 
stance itself would be composed of more or less of fat or lean—cireumstances 
which obviously imply the appropriation in the increase, of varying amounts 
and proportions of the constituents of the food consumed. ‘Then, again, 
though nominally the same, there were unavoidably slight differences in the 
qualities of the food used in the different cases, and the experiments them- 
selves were not all conducted in the same season; that with the Hampshire 
and Sussex Downs being made in the winter of 1850-51, that with the Cots- 
wolds in 1851-52, and with the Leicesters and half-breeds in 1852-53. 
There is also, upon the whole, a very general coincidence in the amounts of 
non-nitrogenous and total organic substance, consumed to produce a given 
amount of increase in this series with the different breeds, and the Series 
1 and 8. At least the general coincidence throughout these several series is 
quite as close as the variations in the foods could lead us to look for. But 
in the column of nitrogenous substance the agreement between this series 
and the others is by no means so obvious; nor, so far as we know, can the . 
want of agreement in the cases thus compared together be accounted for by 
differences in the composition and applicability of the nitrogenous consti- 
tuents themselves. : 
Reviewing then the whole of the experiments with sheep,—if we consider 
that it is the results obtained under the subtle agency of animal life that we 
are seeking to measure and express in figures, and if we also bear in mind 
the various sources of modification to which our actual figures must be sub- 
mitted in order to attain their true indications, we think that it cannot be 
doubted, that beyond a limit below which few, if any, of our current fattening 
food-stuffs are found to go, it is their available non-nitrogenous constituents, 
rather than their richness in the nitrogenous ones, that measure both the 
amount consumed to a given weight of animal, within a given time, and the 
increase in weight obtained. 
But we have still to examine the results of the experiments with pigs as to 
the latter point, namely, that of the relationship of the cnerease produced to 
constituents consumed ; and owing partly to the peculiarities of the animals, 
and partly to the nature of the foods employed, the actual figures themselves 
even (see Table VII.) bear out the view that has been maintained more ob- 
viously at first sight, than those relating to the sheep. Thus, casting the eye 
down the column of total non-nitrogenous substance consumed, and more 
particularly that of the total organic matter, we see with but few exceptions, a 
strikingly close coincidence in the amounts required-to produce 100 pounds 
of gross increase throughout the two series of twenty-four pens, and as many 
different dietaries. Some of the exceptions, such as those where a large 
quantity of bran was used, are at once explained by a consideration of thé 
more obvious qualities of that substance; and many of the minor differences 
by that of the different capacities of those portions of the foods which would 
be digestible and available for the purposes of the animal ceconomy; and in 
this way, as we have already noticed when speaking on the first question, we 
must account for the generally larger amount consumed with the barley meal 
in Series 2, than in the comparable cases with the Indian corn in Series 1. 
Looking to pens 1 and 2 of Series 1, where the food consisted chiefly of 
the highly nitrogenous Leguminous seeds, we have comparatively very small 
amounts of non-nitrogenous substance required to produce a given amount 
of increase; a result which at first sight appears to lead to conclusions 
opposite to those from the experiments as a whole. If we look down the 
column of total organic substance, however, we observe that the amounts 

