191 1.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 851 



given 6 lb. of maize meal daily increased by 13 cwt. 2 qr, 17 lb., a return 

 of only 20 lb. in live weight for maize meal, which cost £1 10s. 

 Another experiment shows that when purchased feeding stuffs are 

 given, less other food is eaten, and the report states that this experiment 

 demonstrates that farmers should exercise judgment in this matter, 

 seeing that other things being equal, it will not pay to give feeding 

 stuffs on luxuriant pastures when beef and purchased feeding stuffs are 

 at the average prices of the last seven years. 



It is a common practice among; farmers to put store bullocks on 

 their best grazing land early in the summer, and to begin at once to 

 feed them with purchased feeding stuffs. On very inferior pastures 

 this may be necessary if the object is to fatten the animal during the 

 summer, though it is extremely doubtful whether fattening should be 

 attempted on such land. But the same is often done on strong grazing 

 land, and this appears to be quite unnecessary. With a scarcity of 

 grass, or other special circumstances, purchased feeding stuffs may 

 always be resorted to with advantage, but the maximum of profit is 

 never obtained by their use unless the farmer takes fully into considera- 

 tion not only the quality of the other foods that are to make up the 

 ration of the animal, but the temperature and season of the year 

 during which the feeding is carried on. 



Another experiment brought out a similar point. The object was 

 to see whether it is desirable to feed store bullocks more liberally in 

 winter, and with more economy during the summer than is usually 

 done. Eight steers were fed; all received second-rate hay and grass, 

 the only difference in the feeding being that four received 6 lb. maize 

 meal daily from January 1st to May 1st, while the other four received 

 an equal weight daily between March 1st and July 1st. The following 

 are the weights of each lot of four at intervals of two months during 

 the experiment : — 



January. March. May. July. Increase, 



cwt.. qr. cwt. qr. . cwt. qr. cwt. qr. cwt. qr. 



Lot I. — (Maize from Jan. to May) ... 39 o 42 1 45 3 5° 3 11 3 

 II. — ( ,, ,, March to July) 39 2 40 o 43 o 48 2 90 



It will be seen that the animals receiving maize during the summer 

 months made no greater gain than those without it, and consequently 

 never made up the weight that the others put on through being given 

 maize in the winter months. 



House Feeding of Sheep (Trans., Highland and Agric. Soc. Fifth 

 Series, Vol. 22, 19 10). — Mr. Ross, of Millcraig, Ross-shire, has for many 

 years practised a system of feeding sheep in sheds, which has been 

 found to have considerable advantages in the trying climate of Scotland, 

 both on account of the quicker fattening of the sheep and reduction 

 of the usual mortality through stress of weather. A description of the 

 sheds and the manner in which they are used is given in this article, 

 and an account of an experiment with the system conducted by Mr. 

 T. A. Anderson, Nanekiln. 



The sheds used at Millcraig take 100 sheep each, and a set of four 

 under one roof, with litter and food sheds attached, cost about ^160. 

 In Mr. Anderson's experiment two lots of twenty sheep each were 

 taken, each lot being the same total weight. One lot were put into 

 the feeding shed on January 14th, while the other lot were finished 



