Comjiarative Fattening Qualities of Sheep. 



433 



In the columns of increase the very ^reat increase of the first 

 three Hampshires, to which allusion has already been made, 

 stands out prominently, and it amounts to an average of 3| lbs. 

 per head per week. 



In the case of both the breeds, the second lot, or the four of 

 least increase, gave an amount of gain little more than half that 

 of the lot preceding it. On the other hand, in the list of 

 medium increase, the 8 of each breed give among themselves 

 respectively almost identical amounts of increase. We have thus, 

 as was desired, among the 16 animals chosen to be killed, great 

 diversity as to rate of increase, though, as we have already seen, 

 and as the summary at the bottom of the Table shows, an average 

 not differing widely from the average of the 40. But it would 

 seem that, so far as the particulars given in Table XII. can indi- 

 cate it, the animals thus brought together in each lot as having 

 increased at equal rates, had developed but few other distinctive 

 characters in common. Thus, first taking a glance at the column 

 giving the amounts of wool shorn from these animals which were 

 drawn out for killing, we shall see a very great irregularity in its 

 quantity per head within each of the lots of nearly equal rate of 

 increase, and this remark applies pretty equally to both breeds ; 

 nor is the difference much less prominent among the 8 animals 

 of great regularity as to rate of increase than with the two lots of 

 4 each, showinjr respectively extreme and opposite qualities in 

 this respect. The differences are, however, not quite so marked 

 among the 8 Sussex sheep of medium rate of increase as among 

 the corresponding 8 of the Hampshire breed. 



Next, as to the proportion of dead weight to live, whether we 

 take the per-centage of carcass in the gross, or in the fasted live 

 weight, we find in both breeds an almost equal irregularity among 

 the animals of nearly equal increase ; though in both breeds the 

 differences are certainly less among the 8 animals of more average 

 quality than with either of the other lots. 



But if we take the mean results, as given at the foot of the 

 Table, we see that the three lots respectively of largest, of 

 smallest, and of medium increase give very nearly equal pro- 

 portions of carcass ; and, comparing the one breed with the 

 other in this respect, we have a still nearer identity. 



With regard to the point of inside or loose fat, it is remarkable 

 that there is in both breeds as wide a range of difference among 

 the 8 animals of medium and nearly equal rate of increase, as 

 among the individuals of either of the other lots. The difrerences, 

 indeed, in the proportion of inside fat are much greater between 

 the individual animals of the several lots than between the averages 

 either of the different lots of the same breed or of the different 

 breeds. To this remark the 4 largest Hampshires are somewhat 



VOL. XII. 2 F 



