490 



Feeds and Feeding. 



748. " Se!f-feed " for fattening lambs. — Some feeders follow the 

 practice of placing quantities of grain sufficient to last a week or 

 more in a box arranged so that the grain passes down into the 

 feed trough as rapidly as the sheep consume the supply below. 

 The purpose of the " self- feed " is to save the time and labor of 

 the shepherd, and also to allow the animals to hare grain before 

 them at all times. Trials with self-feed are reported from the 

 Michigan Station ^ with ten lambs in each lot, and Minnesota Sta 

 tion" with eight lambs in each lot, the results being given below: 



Trials mth "self-feed^' for fattening lambs — Michigan and Minw- 



sota Stations. 



Mumford, ' reviewing his studies with the self- feed, writes: 

 "The experiments are quite conclusive, extending as they do 

 over a period of thi-ee years under varying conditions and with 

 diiferent lots of sheep. "We are led to the conclusion that fatten- 

 ing lambs by means of a self- feed is an expensive practice, and that 

 economy of production requires more attention to the variation in ^ 

 the appetites of the animals than can be given by this method." 



749. Fattening shorn lambs. — At the Michigan Station, * Mum- 

 ford divided a bunch of twenty lambs into two lots of ten each. 

 One lot was shorn and the other left unshorn, both receiving 

 similar treatment as to feed and care. The grain consisted of 

 c«rn and wheat, equal parts by weight, fed with good clover hay. 



' Bui. 113. ^ul. 44. « Bui. 128, Mich. Expt. Sta. ' Bui. 128. 



