92 PRIXCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



isolated from all other influences of a nature to be con- 

 founded with it, he gives the details of his observations 

 in a year when the number of births of males and 

 females were about equal. He also goes on to say, 

 that, '' at the end of each month all the animals at the 

 sheepfold are weighed separately, and thanks to these 

 monthl}^ weighings, we have drawn up several tables 

 from which are seen the diminution or increase in 

 weight of the different animals classed in various points 

 of view, whether according to age, sex or the object 

 for which they were intended. 



Two of these tables have been appropriated to bear- 

 ing ewes — one to those which have borne and nursed 

 males and the other to those which have borne and 

 brought up females. The abstract results of these two 

 tables have furnished two remarkable facts. 



First, The ewes that have produced the female lambs 

 are, on an average, of a weight superior to those that 

 produced the males ; and they evidently lose more in 

 weight than these last during the suckling period. 



Second, The ewes that produce males weigh less, and 

 do not lose in nursing so much as the others. 



If the indications given by these facts come to be 

 confirmed by experiments sufficiently repeated, two 

 new laws will be placed by the side of that which Giron 

 de Bazareingues has determined by his observations 



