iG4? Essai/ on Sheep. 



in value to twenty pounds of turneps. As the 

 size of the sheep are not given, we are ignorant 

 to what species of them to refer this assertion ; 

 and yet they differ very widely from each other 

 in their size and form, upon both of which the 

 quantity of food necessary for their support must 

 in a great measure depend. He states also the 

 comparative quantity of food required by a 

 sheep and an ox as eight or nine to one. A 

 course of experiments was made to determine 

 the relative quantity of food eaten by different 

 kinds of sheep. Four of the South Down 

 breed, whose weight is about equal to twenty 

 pounds a quarter, eat in seven days twenty- 

 nine pounds of cabbage and seventy pounds 

 of hay. This comes to two and a half pounds 

 of hay, and one pound nine-penny weight 

 of cabbage, which exceeds Daubenton's cal- 

 culation; but not more than may be accounts 

 ed for from the different size of the sheep. 

 Wiiat follows is astonishing: the same sheep eat 

 daily of green vetches one hundred and seven 

 pounds, or twenty-six pounds per diem each. 

 Vetches must by this be less nutricious than na- 

 tural grass, nearly as two and a half to one. It 

 is possible that clover would afford a similar re- 

 sult. This ouglit to be investigated. It is not 

 less important to know the number of Merino 



