352 The Feeding of Animals 



fatness, Henueberg concludes that the very small 

 amount of muscle tissue laid on by such animals may 

 "be ignored. Pfeiffer reached the same conclusion from 

 experiments with the same class of animals. This 

 view would not hold with lambs during their increase 

 from weaning time to 100 lbs. in weight, for in this 

 period there must be a material and continuous storage 

 of nitrogenous tissue. 



As is the case with steers, the demand for protein 

 storage is seen to be small with mature fattening sheep, 

 the constructive use of the ration being largely directed 

 to fat formation. The more recent views of the func- 

 tion of the nutrients allow us to believe that, as with 

 bovines, carbohydrates and perhaps fats play a leading 

 part in supplying raw materials for the carcass increase. 

 There is one point of difference between steers and 

 sheep, however: viz., the growth of wool with the lat- 

 ter, that requires the use of more or less food protein. 



The German standard for fattening sheep is 18.5 

 to 18.6 lbs. of total digestible organic matter per 1,000 

 lbs. live weight, 3 to 3.5 lbs. of which shall be protein, 

 thus giving a nutritive ratio ranging from 1:4.5 to 

 1:5.4. There is little doubt that this standard calls for 

 an unnecessarily large proportion of protein. Neither 

 scientific facts nor the observations of practice justify 

 the conclusion that sheep will fatten faster when pro- 

 tein is so liberally supplied than when properly com- 

 pounded rations with a wider nutritive ratio are fed. 

 Doubtless more regard should be paid to the protein 

 supply with sheep than with steers, but it is difficult 

 to adduce a single argument for insisting upon so 



