«6 FEEDING AND FATTENING. 



feed, especially in Ohio and ^Michigan and even as far East as 

 New York, and it is a question whether the same success will 

 crown the efforts of the Eastern feeders, the climate being 

 diametrically opposite to that of the Western States, sheds being 

 a necessity and higher priced feed having to be taken into con- 

 sideration. 



On the feeding of Sheep tn General. 



A certain amount of food is required to enable an animal to 

 live and remain in health. This is termed the necessary ration 

 ■of food. Should this be diminished the animal will fail in 

 flesh, and in time die; vice versa, if more than the necessary 

 ration be fed than is requisite to repair the natural waste of the 

 animal body it will gain flesh, or give an increase, if a female, in 

 the milk supply or wool. 



A full-grown sheep takes 3 1-3 per cent, of its weight in 

 liay per day to keep in ordinary condition. Growing animals 

 should be given all they will eat readily. Quietude and warmth 

 greatly facilitate the process of fattening; that this is a fact is 

 ■easily shown. Motion increases waste of tissue, causing an in- 

 creased respiration to supply the extra amount of oxygen needed; 

 the excess of oxygen requires an increased amount of carbon, 

 which is virtually wasted, whereas it should be expended in pro- 

 ducing fat. Cold operates in a like manner, an extra supply of 

 oxygen and carbon being required to produce extra combustion 

 to restore the loss in temperature. Among herbivorous animals, 

 to which class of course the sheep belong, the carbon required 

 for the warmth of the system and respiratory process is in 

 greater part supplied by the food the animal consumes, while in 

 ■carnivorous or meat-eating animals it is chiefly supplied from 

 the waste of the tissiies of the animal economy. With carniv- 

 ora, the whole of the food consumed can be converted into flesh, 

 ivliile with herbivora, only a portion is capable of being assim- 



