EXPBEIMENTS IN FEEDING SHEEP. 23ff 



for them — which, by the united testimony of the experimenters 

 given in the table of Nutritive Equivalents, contain more 

 nutriment. Which is most cheaply produced, one bushel of 

 peas or four bushels of Swedes? An acre of ground is 

 thought to do unusually well in the region where I reside, 

 that produces, one year with another, 25 bushels of peas. 

 That acre does very poorly that does not produce 500 bushels 

 of Swedes* — 20 bushels for one of peas. The difference in 

 the cost of preparing the ground, cultivating the crop and 

 harvesting, is considerable ; but it makes no approach to the 

 difierence in the product of nutriment. Oats compare 

 equally unfavorably with turnips on the score of economy. 



I wish to show by such facts as the above, that the sheep 

 farmer in determimng what crops he will grow for the winter 

 keep of his sheep, is not merely to estimate the relative value 

 of feeds per pound, but to ascertain how he can provide the 

 most nutriment suitable for sheep, at a given cost. Knowing 

 the adaptation of his farm to the different products, and the 

 cost to himself of producing each, every intelligent farmer 

 can, better than anybody else for him, institute comparisons 

 like the above, between all the products named in the 

 preceding tables. 



The following records of experiments in feeding are from 

 Mr. Robert Smith's essay "On the Management of Sheep," 

 which received the prize of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, in 1847: 



"Experiment No. 1. — On the 20th of December, 1842, 

 eight- lambs were weighed and placed upon the regular turnip 

 land, (a red loam, with, cold subsoil,) to consume the turnips 

 where they grew, and were- regularly supplied with what cut 

 Swedes they would eat, which proved to be on an average of 

 23^ pounds per day. They were again weighed on the 3d 

 of April, 1843, being 15 weeks, and found to have gained, 

 upon an average, during the time, 25 iS- pounds each. 



" No. 2. — On the same day eight lambs were placed in a 

 grass paddock, under the same regulations, and found to have 

 consumed, on an average, 19 lbs. of turnips per day, and 

 gained, during the time, 26f lbs. each. 



" No. 3. — On the same day, eight lambs were placed 

 alongside the No. 2 lot in the grass paddock, and allowed to 

 run in and out of an open shed during the day, but regularly 

 shut up at nightii They were allowed half a pound of mixed 



* I think my own crops have averaged at least 700 or 800 bushels to the acre, for a 

 period of 15 years or more ; and one year they exceeded 1,100 bashels per acre. 



