3 1 2 Agricultural Chemistry — Sheep- Feeding and Manure. 



grown by mineral manures and ammoniacal salts, by 15J per 

 cent, in those having rape-cake as well as the mineral manures, 

 and by 13| per cent, in those having both ammoniacal salts and 

 rape-cake in addition to the mineral manures. It is evident 

 therefore, that the weights of the turnips, as they were given to the 

 sheep, by no means indicated the amount of such as originally 

 came to the shed ; and it will readily be understood that the error 

 from this cause in the estimate of the swedes consumed in the 

 case of the first series of experiments, might easily amount to 

 one-sixth, or more, of the whole quantity supplied, as has been 

 already assumed. 



The figures in the four columns constituting the first divisions 

 of the Tables, show the quantities of food or constituents con- 

 sumed, supposing the weights taken during the course of the 

 experiments to denote the quantities of turnips provided in the 

 state in which they were brought from the field ; and those in the 

 second divisions are obtained by calculating from the per-centage 

 of loss as given above, to what amount of turnips, in their original 

 state, those left at the end of the experiment would be equivalent 

 — deducting this amount from the 5 tons brought to the shed, and 

 calculating what proportion of the remainder was consumed, and 

 what was offal, according to the relative weights of these, as ascer- 

 tained as the experiment proceeded. 



A glance at the Tables will show that the estimate of the con- 

 stituents consumed would have been very far below the truth, if 

 the analysis of the turnips as carted from the field, and the 

 weights as given to the animals from time to time, were taken as 

 the basis of calculation. It is obvious, however, that although the 

 figures of the second division are much nearer the truth than 

 those of the first, yet they may probably slightly overstate the 

 facts ; for the per-centage of loss, or waste, would certainly be 

 somewhat higher upon the turnips which remained to the end of 

 the experiment than upon those which had been weighed at an 

 earlier period, from the amounts of which the per-centages as 

 given above are calculated. The discrepancy would not be great, 

 however, since the actual amount remaining at the conclusion 

 formed but a small proportion of the entire bulk, there having 

 been a considerable quantity thrown away as offal throughout the 

 period, part of this being what the animals left in their troughs, 

 but the greater portion those which were rotten, of which there 

 were more t han twice as many in the turnips of the 4th than in 

 those in any of the other pens, there being least in pens 1 and 2. 



These statements are only brought forward to illustrate the 

 fact that a considerable change of some kind or other takes place 

 in succulent food after it is stored, and to show that the estimate 

 of the quantity of constituents consumed to produce a given 



