498 



Feeds and Feeding. 



758. Dry versus soaked corn for sheep. — Mueller* fed sheep 

 on dry and soaked corn. Twenty sheep nearly two years old 

 were fed 1.4 pounds of whole corn per day per head, ten animals 

 receiving the grain dry and ten receiving it soaked with as much 

 water as it would absorb. At the end of a period of ten weeks 

 the live weight of the sheep fed dry com had increased 6.6 pounds 

 more per head than the lot receiving soaked corn; after four weeks 

 more, the live weight of the former lot had increased 12.1 pounds 

 per head more than the second lot. The author explains the 

 poorer utilization of the soaked com by the decreased secretion 

 of saliva when grain so treated was fed. (375) 



759. Wheat. — The low price ruling for wheat in recent years 

 has stimulated much interest in its use for fattening sheep. A 

 trial at the Michigan Station' by Mumford, in which wheat wae 

 fed, in opposition to com, to lots of ten lambs each, is summar- 

 ized in the following table: 



Feeding lambs wheat in opposition to com — Michigan Station. 



By ttie above we learn that the lambs fed wheat required more 

 feed for a given gain and did not make quite so large daily gains 

 as those fed com. (166-8, 852) 



760. English experience with wheat. — Voelcker conducted three 

 trials at the Wobum (England) Station to ascertain the feeding 

 value of wheat as a grain for fattening sheep. * Wheat meal was 

 found unsatisfactory owing to the fact that the meal adhered to 

 the jaws of the sheep when eating it, forming a sticky mass, 

 Whole wheat was substituted, and the effect was remarkable; the 

 sheep which would barely clean up the half-pound allowance of 



' Braunschw. Landw. Zeit, 1885, p. 209; Jahreab. Agr.-C!hemie, 1885, 

 p. 576. 

 » BuL li2a. • Jour. Eoy. Agr. Soc, 1886-88. 



