l86 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1904. 



The sheep employed for the first two seasons were young 

 Shropshires that were not very satisfactory. They were small 

 eaters, especially of coarse fodders, and had to be handled very 

 carefully to prevent them from getting out of condition. The 

 third season large well matured lambs were obtained, but they 

 did not take kindly to the confinement, probably because they 

 were so young, and all comparative experiments with them had 

 to be abandoned. The fourth season they were again tried and 

 were more satisfactory. 



METHOD. 



The method of experiment employed with the sheep was prac- 

 tically the same as has been previously u^ed at this Station, and 

 described in Report for 1891, p. 25, except that the platform on 

 which the sheep stood was raised so that the urine could be col- 

 lected. For this purpose a rubber funnel was attached with 

 straps passing over the animal's back, and a rubber tube led 

 from it to convey the urine to a vessel beneath the platform. 

 The whole experiment covered a period of twelve or thirteen 

 days, the first seven days being a preliminary feeding period, 

 while during the last five or six days the feces and urine were 

 all collected, weighed and sampled for analysis. 



The first two seasons the steers were so small that rubber 

 lined pouches for collecting the feces, similar to those used on 

 sheep, worked very satisfactorily. But during the third sum- 

 mer they made very rapid growth and attained such size that 

 the pouch was no longer practicable and a galvanized iron 

 trough was set in the rear of the platform so that it would secure 

 all the droppings, and a strong wire running across behind the 

 steer prevented him from stepping back into it. The stall and 

 platform were just long enough to accommodate the animal, and 

 all feces fell into the galvanized iron trough. Each ration of 

 hay and grain were carefully weighed, the feces were collected 

 in iron tubs and weighed at the end of the period on the same 

 scales used to weigh the ration. The work was only carried on 

 during cold weather, so no fermentation took place. The urine 

 from the steers was collected with rubber funnels the same as 

 with sheep. Between the experiments the animals were given 

 a week's rest, which was necessary to keep them in good con- 

 dition. 



