PROFIT IK FEEDIKG. 69 



three flocks of sheep when they were weighed in the yards on the 

 1st day of January. All the labor involved in feeding and taking 

 care of the sheep, would not equal that of cleaning the stables for 

 the steers. Mr. Watkins purchased the 290 sheep well, and sold 

 them well, and he reports his winter's doings with them as follows : 



Cost of 390 sheep, (nearly 4c. per lb.), $1,260 61 



do. 435 bushels of corn, at 80c 34800 



do. 13 tons of hay, $10 13000 $1,73861 



Feb. 38th, sold 270 at $8 each 2 160 00 



do. do. 18 culls, $4 each 72 00 



Two sheep got cast ; sold pelts for $2 each. 4 00 



"This pays over $1.71 for the trouble of buying and selling and 

 risk on each sheep, if we call the manure pay for the labor of caring 

 for the sheep. The price of hay is here very low this season, but 

 corn is very high. Straw and chaff we consider as of but little 

 value for manure, unless worked over by the feet of some animal, 

 and used as an absorbent for their manure. For this reason we 

 credit the sheep with the work of converting a large quantity of 

 straw and chaff into available food for plants. 



" I do not give Mr. Watkins' experience as an average, for it is 

 far better than any average that he can make for a series of years. 

 Nor do I think it is by any means conclusive as between the 

 breeds of sheep that he fed. The grade Merino and Cotswold I 

 sold him the 21st day of last December. They were all ewes, 2 

 and 3 years old, and were a very even, and in all respects a desira- 

 ble lot. The other flocks I did not see, but I suppose, from in- 

 formation, that they were not so even or desirable ; and sheep here 

 usually called full-blooded Cotswolds, come from Canada or the 

 border, and are not very good, perhaps they are mostly the culls 

 of the flocks they came from. After all reasonable allowances 

 have been made, the lesson of this winter's work of Mr. Watkins 

 is certainly that sheep are much more profitable makers of meat 

 than steers, such as can be bought in Buffalo in the fall of the year, 

 and they are still better manufacturers of straw and other coarse 

 forage into manure." 



Both the facts here given, and the relator's comments, are very 

 valuable. From the statement as to feed and gain in weight, the 

 following deductions as to the value of the corn fed for producing 

 increase of weight, may be made. Taking the three flocks, we 

 have the following results for each, accepting the feeding value of 

 hay as previously given, as a basis for a portion of the increase: 



