APPENDIX C. 



419 



state the weight of Swedes, &c., &c., sheep and lambs will daily 

 consume ; also the live weight they will generally gain in four weelcs, 

 according to their age and season of the year. I am enabled to do this 

 without much fear of contradiction, as I have been in the habit of 

 regulai-ly weighing my sheep and lambs nearly every month for more 

 than twenty years. 



An ewe lamb -hog in the month of February will eat of cut 



Swedes in twenty - four hours, about ' 18 lbs. 



A wether lamb - hog 20 



A ram lamb - hog 23 



•A shearling wether-. . '. 23 , 



A feeding or breeding ewe 24 



A sucking ewe 28 



A ram above two years old 30 



— no other food but cut Swedes being given to them : but if the weather 

 is mild or warm they wiU not eat so much as I have stated by about 

 one-fourth. If com or oil-cake, or any other dry food is used, they will 

 consume less turnips in proportion to the quantity given. I have 

 found that by giving sheep one pint of beans each per day, they wUl 

 not require so many Swedes by about five lbs. or six lbs. each. 



"Lambs and sheep managed and fed well, if in small lots, will gain 

 in live weight each on the average per month : 



Young lambs in the month 



of April 9 lbs. 



May 16 



June -. 18 



July 15 



August 12 



September 13 



Lambs in the month of 



October 12 lbs. 



November 8 



December 6 



January 5 



February 7 



March 10 



— being about 130 lbs., in twelve months, of live weight, or about 84 lbs. 

 of mutton. Some lambs will, however, greatly exceed ia gain the 

 weights that I have stated. * » * » * 



" In carrying out these experiments, I was obliged, for the most part, 

 to keep them in small yards, a system which I am generally opposed 

 to (for any length of time ;) believing that sheep and all other animals 

 ought, as far as regards situation, to be kept in a state as near approach- 

 ing to that which nature assigned for them as possible, provided always 

 that theii- lair be kept clean and dry, and shelter allowed them from 

 the cold winds. When yards must be used for sheep, they ought always 

 to be kept tolerably firee from mamu-e, well littered, and to have plenty 

 of fresh air. 



" Mxperiment No. 1. — In the month of March, 1845, 1 selected twelve 

 couples from the flock; the lambs being then about a fortnight old. 

 These were divided into two lots, as equally as well could be with 

 respect to the condition of the young lambs, and put into two separate 

 small yards. Six of them were fed on clover-hay chaff entirely ; the 

 otlier six couples had 140 lbs. of cut Swedes, and half a peck of beans 

 daily ; both lots having water. At the end of the trial of about a month, 

 the lambs of each were carefully compared ; and those certainly looked 

 the best and most thriving whose dams had been fed only on clover-hay 

 chaff. 



