REPORT BY PROJECTS 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

 Sheep Breeding — (Adams Fund) 



Since the object of this project is the final establishment of a strain 

 of sheep with good weight of lambs, good fleece, and possessing four 

 functional nipples, a high milk yield in ewes, and a high twinning 

 tendency, it is obvious that progress is necessarily slow, and but few 

 changes and results can be reported from year to year. No special 

 tests are being made regarding the milk yield of ewes. The animals 

 are being classed simi)ly as (1) good. (2) fair, and (3) poor milkers 

 based on the knowledge and observations of the shepherd. The 

 estimates are, however, further checked by the rate of increase in 

 weight of suckling lambs. The results obtained in twinning and in 

 growth or weight of lambs indicate a satisfactory progress toward the 

 end in view. Fifty-four per cent of the litters, that is, somewhat over 

 70 i)er cent of all lambs born, were twins. The rate of growth also 

 was satisfactory, the average weight at 31/2 months being over 60 

 pounds i)er head. It seems essential to proceed along these lines for 

 some years and develoj) more highly the separate traits possessed by 

 different groups before they are crossed finally to merge into a single 

 grouj). 



The work is in charge of E. G. Ritzman. who has had the benefit 

 of the advice and cooperation of C. B. Davenport, director of the 

 Laboratory of Experimental Evolution of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington. Messrs. ]^aveni)ort and Ritzman are now rejiorting in 

 bulletin form on the results of tlie breeding work as it affects wool 

 characteristics. 



Nutrition Studies with Beef Steers — (Adams Fund — in Cooperation 

 irith the Carnegie Institution of Washington) 



The change in technique made during the previous year (1924- 

 1925) from the two-hour resjiiration experiments to continuous four- 

 day experiments together with the new apparatus for determining 

 methane production made it i)ossible to take up for the first time 

 l)roblcms important in the study of CO2 production. These were pri- 

 marily the production of methane during feeding and during fasting, 

 and also on rations of timothy hay only and on rations of timothy 

 hay with linseed oil meal. A device was arranged in the respiration 

 chamber indicating by an alarm bell when the animal changed posi- 

 tion from standing to lying and reverse so that the total time spent 

 could be accounted for and a separate collection of CO2 could be made 

 for standing and lying. 



In the main the same principle of procedure was followed in the 

 res})iration experiments as during the preceding year; namely, of 

 studying the first two days on the same feed level, with the same en- 

 vironmental temjierature on which the animals had been maintained 

 for at least two weeks previous to the experiment, and proceeding the 

 last two days without feed. 



