250 SCIENTIFIC FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



siderable time on insufficient food, or who may even 

 be starving, the growth of the hair and the beard 

 does not entirely cease. The formation of hair or 

 wool does, however, most certainly diminish when 

 , through improper nutrition the body weight sinks 

 below a certain amount. This may be seen from an 

 investigation where two groups of twelve sheep were 

 taken and one group fed on meadow hay and ground 

 beans for four months, the weights at the beginning 

 being 46-50 kg. and at the end 46-55 kg. The 

 second group were fed on oat straw and mangels, 

 and their weight, which was 46-1 kg. at the begin- 

 ning, sank to 44-1 kg. during the four months the 

 experiment lasted. The first group during the 

 experiment made 9-12 kg. of roughly washed wool, 

 which contained 5-99 kg. pure wool, and the second 

 group, which were underfed, yielded only 7-02 kg. 

 of roughly washed wool, of which 4-58 kg. was pure. 

 Similar results were shown in another experiment, 

 where the following figures per day and per 1000 kg. 

 live weight were obtained : — 



in. 

 Increase in body weight 0-79 kg. 

 Growth of wool . . 0-16 „ 

 Growth of wool expressed 



in percentage of weight 



of fleece . . . 0-306% 0-292% 0-293% 0-237% 



As is seen in sections III, I, and IV, the growth 

 of wool does not always suffer when the body 

 weight diminishes ; but when, as in section II. 



