EELATION OF FOOD TO AXIMAL REQUIREMENTS. 103 



of stomach is greater in a fat ox or sheep than in a pig, 

 being on 100 lb. live weight, 3"2 for the ox, 2*5 for the 

 sheep, and 07 for the pig. On the other hand, the pro- 

 portion of the intestines is greater with the pig than with 

 sheep or oxen. Ruminant animals are thus best fitted for 

 dealing with food requiring a prolonged digestion, while 

 the pig excels in the capacity for assimilation. 



As a natural result of the larger consumption of food 

 the pig increases in weight much more speedily than 

 either the sheep or ox ; but not only is the rate of 

 increase more rapid, the increase yielded by the pig is 

 also far greater in proportion to the food received, as 

 plainly appears from the lower division of the table. The 

 pig with its very large consumption of food has, in fact, to 

 spend a smaller proportion of it on heat and work, and 

 has thus a large surplus left to store up as increase. Of 

 100 lb. digested organic matter, the fattening ox spends 

 about 77 for heat and work, the sheep 74, and the pig 57. 

 The upper division of the table shows, however, that in a 

 given time a pig does convert a much larger amount of 

 food into heat and work than either sheep or ox ; this 

 greater consumption probably represents internal work 

 performed in the laying on of increase. The pig, with its 

 rapid feeding, and high rate of increase, is undoubtedly 

 the most economical meat-making machine at the farmer's 

 disposal. 



The results given by sheep are seen to lie in nearly 

 every case between those given by oxen and pigs, being 

 however much nearer to the former than to the latter. 

 The German experiments place the sheep below the ox as 

 an economic producer of increase, instead of above it, as 

 in the Rothamsted statistics just quoted ; the difference is 



