110 OF LIVE STOCK. 



if he is supplied with water when he requires it, than when 

 he is only occasionally driven to it. 



The profit to be derived from feeding cattle, compared 

 to sheep, has been a subject of dispute. Mr Kerr calcu- 

 lates, that an acre of good feeding land in Berwickshire, will 

 support a sizeable ox, or five full-sized Leicester sheep.* 

 The ox, he states, will increase in the course of the season 

 to the amount of 16 stone, 14; Ib. to the stone, or 224 Ib. 

 in all, and the five Leicester sheep will produce, besides 

 the wool, on an average about 12 i stone of mutton, or 

 168 Ibs. In the county of Durham, however, Mr Bailey 

 of Chillingham estimates, that an acre of such land as 

 will feed an ox of 60 or 70 stone, will feed from seven to 

 eight sheep per acre. Such an ox, feeding on turnips, will 

 consume from 20 to 22 stone per day. By experiments 

 recorded in the Northumberland Report, tups of 12^ live 

 weight, eat 2| stones of turnips per day, which is at the rate 

 of eight to one, comparing cattle to sheep. Hence, if they 

 eat grass in the same proportion, and if, as is the case in 

 the Morpeth market, when beef sells at 8 s. per stone, sink- 

 ing the offal, mutton fetches 9s., the calculation of compa- 

 rative profit from these data will be as follows : 



1. Eight sheep, gaining 1\ stones each, or 20 

 stone in all, at 9s. per stone, or L.I : 2 : 6 



per sheep, - - - L.9 



2. An ox gaining 16 stone at 8s. per stone, 680 



Difference in favour of sheep, L.2 12 



* See Kerr's Report of Berwickshire, p. 320. Mr Kerr makes the 

 winter proportion on turnips, ten sheep to one moderate-sized fattening 

 x, with the addition of straw. Ditto, p. 279, 



