FEEDING SHEEP. 405 



THE DOUBLE INCOME. 



It is important in all branches of industry to consider 

 the sources of income, and their availability at short 

 periods. Sheep afford two annual incomes lambs and 

 wool and they are usually about equal in value. The 

 experiments of Sir J. B. Lawes, in reference to the per- 

 centage of food utilized or stored up by different animals, 

 presented the sheep in a very favorable light. Of the dry 

 food consumed, he found that sheep stored up in increased 

 weight 12 per cent., while cattle only laid up in increased 

 weight 8 per cent.; that is SM Ibs. of dry food increased the 

 live weight of sheep as much as 12K Ibs. the live weight of 

 cattle. So that, relying upon these experiments, sheep must 

 be considered as excellent utilizers of food, as producing as 

 many pounds of mutton, besides the wool, from a given 

 quantity of food, as can be produced of beef; and as the 

 best mutton brings as high a price as the best beef, it would 

 appear, on this basis, that sheep would give the fleece as 

 extra profit over cattle. If this is not too favorable a view, 

 then sheep on suitable lands must be considered among the 

 most profitable of farm stock. It is true the dairy cow 

 brings her profitable flow of milk to offset the yield of wool ; 

 but the dairy cow does not lay on flesh while producing 

 milk, as does the sheep, while producing wool. A fleece of 

 five pounds of wool, grown in a year, requires only a daily 

 growth of 1-5 of an ounce, which can take but a small por- 

 tion of food to produce. The mineral matter taken from 

 the soil by the fleece is only 1.6 ounces per year; and if six 

 half-mutton sheep represent a cow, the whole mineral con- 

 stituents taken by the six fleeces would only be 9.6 oz., and 

 about 1.9 Ibs. of nitrogen; whilst the ordinary cow, yield- 

 ing 4,000 Ibs. of milk, would take 26 Ibs. of mineral matter 

 or ash, and 25 Ibs. of nitrogen, or 43 times as much mineral 

 matter, and 13 times as much nitrogen as the fleeces of the 

 sheep. But this is not considering all the elements of 



