86 BULLETIN NO. 59. 



of November and turned out upon the grain and hay fields. The 

 fall and summer had been quite dry, however, so that there was but 

 little feed upon the fields and in two weeks the sheep were put into 

 the feed lots. When they came upon the station farm the wethers 

 averaged 113 pounds, and two weeks later, when put into the feed 

 lots, they weighed 119^ pounds each, gaining 6 l / 2 pounds on the 

 pasture. This may have been partly due to a fill-up, as well as to 

 some increase in weight. The lambs weighed 54 pounds each when 

 they arrived on the farm and 57^ pounds when put into the feed 

 lots two weeks later. It will be noted that these weights were con- 

 siderably below the weights of the stock fed the year before, when 

 the wethers weighed 123 pounds at the beginning of the test and 

 the lambs 70 pounds. These weights also show that the lambs 

 were light for the season of the year and they were not equal in 

 quality to those of the year before, but in breeding were somewhat 

 similar, being Merino grades with a greater or less mixture of 

 mutton blood. The wethers were also light in weight but were a 

 little better in condition and quality than the lambs. 



KIND AND PRICES OF FEED. 



In this portion of Gallatin Valley the principal hay is red and 

 alsike clover, usually mixed in various proportions. With the sum- 

 mer weather we usually have, this hay may be easily cured, saving 

 a large proportion of the leaves and stems and is thus of very good 

 quality. We usually have considerable new meadow, as we seed 

 about 15 to 20 acres every year in following a systematic rotation on 

 the farm. This leaves quite a large amount of old stubble on the 

 hay field, more or less of which is raked up with the first crop of 

 clover. As the animals refuse to eat those dead stalks, it means 

 considerable waste when feeding this first crop of hay, which was 

 the main crop f"d to those sheep. Again the winter of 1003 4 was 

 quite a sno\vy winter. As we have no place to store our hay under 

 cover it is stored in stacks and the snow and wet interferred con- 

 siderably with the getting of a correct or exact weight of the hay 

 fed. It is believed, however, that the results given are fairly ac- 

 curate and if an error there be, it is on the side of increasing rather 

 than decreasing the cost of the feeding. The grains fed, except the 

 screenings, were grown upon the farm and were fed whole. The 



