112 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



of cattle and sheep. The main object of this work is to throw 

 Ught on the very important question of the most economic age 

 at which these animals should be slaughtered for the production 

 of meat. The work involves the detailed examination of large 

 numbers of animals, and a bare record of the results so far 

 obtained will therefore convey only an inadequate idea of the 

 work involved ; but it is clear that before any radical change in 

 the present methods of stock feeders can be recommended it must 

 be justified by conclusive results obtained from experimental 

 observations on a very large scale. In connection with sheep, 

 the Cambridge workers have secured live weight records on the 

 farm for over 400 animals, representing four year's crops of lambs. 

 The condition of management and sex affecting live weight 

 increase have been observed and recorded. Animals are killed 

 at different ages and the amount of live and carcase weight 

 determined; the carcases are then cut up and the weights of 

 bone and meat ascertained. In some cases — the leg in particular 

 — the individual muscles have been weighed. The final batch 

 of animals was killed at Christmas, 1921, and when the data 

 secured have been worked up the results will be published. 



In the case of cattle, the most important problem requiring 

 settlement is the stage at which fattening cattle should be killed. 

 At present stock feeders continue fattening until the animals are 

 " prime fat " and fat begins to accumulate on the flank, in the 

 scrotum, and generally on the outside of the animal. The view 

 apparently held is that it is mainly at this period that fat is laid 

 down in the body generally. The origin of this view is probably 

 due to the fact that the practical man has no criterion of internal 

 fatness except the appearance of what may be called " overflow 

 fat " on the outside of the animal. The experimental evidence 

 so far obtained does not favour this view, but suggests that the 

 deposition of the fat is a gradual process, extending throughout 

 the fattening period. So far as the Cambridge experiments 

 have gone, they indicate that the last month of the fattening 

 period, which the stock feeder now regards as the most important,, 

 is in fact the most wasteful. Seven store beasts, uniform with 

 one exception, were bought for fattening at the end of last year. 

 They were killed at intervals of one month, and the percentage 

 of carcase to live weight was found to be as follows : — killed in 

 December, 51%; in January, 53%; in February, 55%; in 

 March, 57% ; in April, 55% ; in May, 59% ; in June, (when the 

 animal was prime fat) 60%. Thus with the exception of the April 

 beast, which was unfortunately abnormal in all respects, the series 

 showed a rapid rise for five months, when it remained practically 

 stationary for the last month of fattening. During that month 



