MAlSrUAL OF CATTLE-FEEBIFG. 403 



Effect of Shearing. — It is a noteworthy fact, and one 

 which has been coniirnied by numerous experiment>s, that 

 fattening sheep after beina: shorn increase in live-weiffht 

 much more rapidly than immediately before shearing. It 

 lias been observed, moreover, in some cases, that while 

 before shearing the more nitrogenous ration produced a 

 decidedly greater effect than one poorer in protein, the dif- 

 ference between the two almost dibappeared after shearing, 

 so far as the increase in live-weight was affected. 



The more rapid increase in weight after shearing is usu- 

 ally explained very simply by the fact that the appetite of 

 the animals is thereby almost always increased, so that 

 more fodder is eaten. In one expeiiment in Weende, 

 however, the amount of fodder consumed remained the 

 same, and yet the gain in weight was greater after than 

 before shearing. In this experiment it was observed that 

 nmch less water was drunk after shearing, doubtless in 

 consequence of decreased perspiration, a fact which would 

 favor and may explain an increased gain (compare pp. 135, 

 198, and SSi). A similar decrease in the amomit of water 

 drunk was observed in experiments in Proskau; the gain 

 of flesh, however, was not increased, but on the contrary 

 the protein consumption in the body increased some five 

 per cent., and the gain of flesh decreased correspondingly. 

 This, of course, does not exclude the possibility of an in- 

 creased gain of fat, but it renders it improbable. The 

 digestibility o£ the fodder was exactly the same before 

 and after shearing. 



On the whole, then, we must conclude that the increased 

 appetite of the animals resulting from shearing is, so far 

 as we can now see, the chief if not the only cause of the 

 more rapid fattening. 



