434 Comparative Fattening Qualities of Sheep. 



exceptional, the individuals composing it giving very nearly equal 

 proportions of loose fat, though the average for this lot is less 

 than for any other ; this indeed is quite consistent both with the 

 appearance of these animals and with the known fact of their 

 tendency to increase in frame rather than to fatten. 



Taking the average of the 16 sheep in each case, we find the 

 Sussex sheep have given more loose fat than the Hampshires by 

 about 0'2 per cent., an amount which is really insignificant. 

 Nevertheless, it is worthy of remark that the direction of this 

 difference is quite consistent with that between the average pro-> 

 portion of lung found in the two cases. Thus we have in the 

 Sussex a rather higher per-centage both of loose fat and of lung; 

 characters which, when they predominate, bespeak more of the 

 habit of exercise and a tendency to develop fat more rapidly 

 around the abdominal viscera than upon the carcass ; whilst the 

 opposite characters are those which indicate an animal of less 

 roaming habits and more accustomed and fitted to have an easy 

 access to a liberal supply of good food, and with these, more of 

 the tendency to increase in carcass, and less in the alimentary 

 organs and the fat surrounding them, These qualities in fact are 

 those of " early maturity ;^ and it is certainly a great deside- 

 ratum in a fatting animal to attain the necessary ripeness of meat 

 with as little expenditure as possible of time and food in the 

 production of mere inside fat or tallow, to the profit of the butcher. 



It is true that our experiments have shown very slight differ- 

 ences between the two breeds in relation to the points in question, 

 yet still the direction of those differences is consistent with the 

 current opinions on the subject in reference to the two breeds, 

 viz., that the Hampshire sheep comes earlier to maturity, and 

 that the Sussex, when ripe, gives more valuable offal to the butcher. 



That there is some general connection between relative small- 

 ness of lung and of loose fat on the one hand, and tendency to 

 increase on the other, is further seen on comparing the different 

 lots of the same breed with one another in the summary at the 

 foot of the Table; for we there see that with both breeds the 

 smallest proportion both of lung and of loose fat was in the lots 

 of largest increase. With regard to lung the converse is also 

 true, for we find that its proportion is largest with the lots giving 

 the smallest increase : the same holds good with regard to loose 

 fat so far as the Hampshires are concerned; and with the Sussex, 

 though the lot of medium increase gives a higher proportion still, 

 nevertheless the lot of smallest increase does give a higher 

 amount of loose fat than the lot of largest increase. With this 

 slight exception, then, the general fact, as stated above, seems 

 fully borne out by the tenor of the results relating to it. 



It is not our intention to enter further into questions of this 



