250 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



early lambs; third, in the sale of yearling lambs and fat ewes, and fourth, 

 in the sale of wool. The raising of wool alone is not profitable, but it 

 would pay to raise the sheep if they had no wool. 



Some feeding experiments, conducted by the Massachusetts State 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, supplement Mr. Bowditch's practice. 

 These experiments were devised for the purpose of ascertaining the cost 

 of feed, when fattening lambs for market by means of winter fodder 

 rations. Six grade lambs, three ewes, and three wethers, bought Sep- 

 tember 4, 1889, of a farmer of the vicinity, served for the experiment. 

 They consisted of five Hampshire Down and one Merino grades. Each 

 animal occupied, during the entire period of observation, a separate 

 pen. They were shorn before being weighed at the beginning of the 

 experiment. 



The daily diet of the entire lot consisted, daring the first week, of 

 rowen. They were subsequently treated in two divisions, each com- 

 prising three animals. This division was made for the purpose of com- 

 paring the effect of two distinctly different daily fodder rations on the 

 financial results of the operation. The first division, a wether and 

 two ewes, received a daily diet much richer in nitrogenous food con- 

 stituents than the one adopted for the second division, one ewe and two 

 wethers. This was brought about by feeding to the first division, as 

 grain feed, a mixture of wheat bran and of gluten meal, and to the sec- 

 ond division one consisting of a liberal proportion of corn meal with some 

 wheat bran and gluten meal. The coarse portion of the daily feed was 

 in both cases essentially the same, namely, either rowen, or rowen and 

 corn ensilage, or corn ensilage alone. It was cut before being mixed 

 with the grain feed when fed. The daily fodder ration was divided 

 into three equal parts and fed respectively in the morning, at noon, 

 and in the evening. The amount of feed left unconsumed, if any, was 

 collected each morning and deducted from the daily ration offered the 

 preceding day for consumption. The observation, in case of the first 

 division of lambs, one wether and two ewes, were continued for 152 

 successive days — September 5, 1889, to February 4, 1890— while in 

 case of the second division, one ewe and two wethers, they were ex- 

 tended to March 18, 1890, and lasted thus for 194 consecutive days. 

 Low rate of increase in live weight and local market condition advised 

 the extension of the trial in the latter case. 



The three lambs of the first division, fed on richer nitrogenous food, 

 gained within 152 days in live weight in the aggregate 107 J pounds, 

 or each individual on an average 35.8 pounds; while those of the sec- 

 ond division gained during 194 days in the aggregate only 86 pounds, 

 or each individual on an average 28.7 pounds. The gain of live weight 

 during the experiment of each division and each animal is here shown : 



