COOKED FOOD FOR SHEEP. 455 



and evening, with % Ib. of dry hay at noon. Upon this 

 ration the gain was 3 Ibs. per head per week. The same 

 ration uncooked produced a gain of 2 to 2M Ibs. per head 

 per week. Upon this cooked ration the sheep seemed as 

 contented as on grass. 



A cooked ration is more laxative than a dry one, and the 

 small proportion of oil-meal also assisted in keeping the 

 digestive organs in a healthy condition. The small lock of 

 dry hay at noon was relished and corrected any tendency 

 to relaxation. Having fed sheep upon steamed food for 

 several winters, and always with satisfaction, we came to 

 regard this way of feeding as most profitable with a large 

 stock and the proper facilities. 



ANOTHER EXPERIMENT. 



Under this head we will give a condensed statement of 

 the experiments of the late Arvine C. "Wales, of Massillon, 

 Ohio, in feeding sheep on a large scale upon cooked food. 

 In 1874 he divided a lot of 300 sheep into two flocks of 

 150 each. The one lot was placed under a shed and fed 

 liberally on clover hay and sheaf oats ; the other lot was 

 placed in another shed and fed on cut fodder corn and 

 wheat bran. Seventy-five pounds of bran were mixed with 

 one day's feed of fodder corn and all wet down with boiling 

 water. Both lots of sheep were weighed before the feeding 

 began and frequently during the experiment, of eight 

 weeks. He does not give the figures of the weighings, but 

 says: " They were interesting to me and so satisfactory as 

 to seem to warrant the purchase of an engine and boiler, 

 and the putting up of tanks and conveniences on a scale 

 adequate to the wants of the flock. Since then I have fed 

 cooked food almost exclusively. Last winter, owing to the 

 failure of the hay crop, I kept over my entire stock, con- 

 sisting of 20 horses, 20 head of cattle, and between 1,600 

 and 1,700 sheep, without a pound of hay, and they came 



