FATTENING RANGE LAMBS. 19 



The writer would not be understood as saying that a financial 

 statement is of no value or that nothing- should be said concerning: 

 the cost of gains. On the contrary, each has a value, but it is be. 

 lieved that in either case the value is far less important than is the 

 matter of the amount of feed required to produce a given gain, on 

 account of the sudden and wide variation in price that may occur. 



Table VI is intended to show the effect that the different costs 

 of gains made by the four lots have upon the prices at which lambs 

 bought at various prices, ranging- from $3.00 to $8.00 per hundred- 

 weight, may be sold without loss. Neither rapid gains nor cheap 

 gains are necessarily the most profitable. Sometimes the most 

 rapid g-ains are so expensive as to do away with all profit. Ag-ain, 

 cheap gains are often so slow as to prevent making- a sufficient num- 

 ber of pounds to provide any considerable profit. It is desirable to 

 secure grains that are both cheap and rapid, and to do this it is nec- 

 essary to find efficient feeds that are not too high in price. The 

 work done by this Station in fattening- lambs indicates that corn 

 and clover or alfalfa constitute such a ration under normal market 

 conditions. Other rations may be used with satisfactory results, 

 but when corn and clover or alfalfa are available at moderate 

 prices, it seems improbable that any other feeds can be used with 

 increased profit, unless unusual prices prevail for feeds. This table 

 is based upon the prevailing- prices of feeds during the experiment, 

 and would, of course, be affected by chang-ed prices, It is assumed, 

 and the calculations for this table are based upon the assumption, 

 that all lots weig-hed the same, 2,203^ pounds, when put on experi- 

 ment, and that all lots made the same g-ain, 1,200 pounds; this is not 

 strictly accurate, but it is impossible to ascertain the real bearing 

 of the cost of gain upon the cost of fat lambs when other factors 

 vary. This, again, emphasizes the fact that financial statements 

 of experimental work in feeding- livestock often fall far short of 

 telling the whole of the facts of the case. 



RESULTS FROM LINSEED OILMEAL AND STOCK FOOD. 



Unless linseed oilmeal can be purchased at approximately as low 

 a price as corn per pound no profit from its use- with corn and clover 

 hay for fattening- lambs is to be expected. This discussion applies 

 only to feeding linseed oilmeal with a nitrogenous roughage and 

 should not be understood to mean that linseed oilmeal may never be 

 fed with profit. As regards the use of the stockfood tested in both 

 experiments, little can be said either for or against its use. While 

 the total cost is not great, the results of either test do not show any 

 great ad vantage from its use neither is any particular disadvantage 



