SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING. 191 



was made. After having been weaned this lot of lanibs 

 made from 2,270 Ibs. of grain food 667 Ibs. of 'live weight, or 

 one pound from three pounds of grain eaten, counting good 

 blue grass pasture in. During the final feeding of these 

 lambs for market, an average of 4 Ibs. of grain, 2.75 Ibs. of 

 hay and one pound of roots were required to make one 

 pound of live weight. Of course it is to be considered that 

 through the first period the lambs were getting the ewes 

 milk which accounts for the small amount of grain food 

 needed for each pound of live weight, but it was found that 

 the effect of this early growth was to considerably increase 

 the product of grow r th in the later periods, In proportion to 

 the grain food consumed. There was this advantage as 

 well, which was, that being used to the grain ration the in- 

 crease of this during the fattening period was not accom- 

 panied by any of those drawbacks which commonly hap- 

 pen when lambs unused to eating grain, are put on grain 

 feeding. The lambs continued growth, without any draw- 

 back, thus repaid in this way to some extent for the early 

 feeding of the grain. This experiment continued for nine 

 months. At the end of it, it was found that the lambs fed 

 from the first on the grain ration w r ere fit for sale, and had 

 made the same weight, about seven weeks before others 

 not so fed were fit for market. Thus the feeding for these 

 weeks was really saved by the early feeding. 



In estimating the results at the final disposal of these 

 lambs, it was found that those that were fed a grain ration 

 from birth not only made seventeen pounds per head for the 

 same age, more than the others, but that they also dressed 

 a slightly higher per cent in weight. 



As to the fleeces of these lambs, the results showed that 

 the lot fed from birth yielded an average of one pound more 

 wool per fleece than the other lambs, but this advantage 

 did not obtain after the wool was thoroughly washed, so as 

 to completely remove all yolk and grease, on account of the 

 greater shrinkage in the washing. This of course tends to 

 the advantage of the seller of the wcol in the grease. The 

 final test of the butcher's block showed that the early fed 

 lambs were worth about one cent a pound more than the 

 others, and on selling the three lots the first brought $5.69 

 per 100 Ibs., the second and third lots, $4.74 per hundred. 



