Agricultural Chemistry — Sheep- Feeding and Manure. 317 



every sheep had lost — some very considerably — and the uniformity 

 between pen and pen, as well as between the sheep previously 

 supposed to match with each other in the different pens, was also 

 lost, so far as weight is concerned. In some cases the loss was 

 probably chiefly dirt and moisture, though in some it was mani- 

 festly owing to an inaptitude of the food. This, however, can 

 scarcely in any case be attributed to the special foods, but much 

 more certainly to the mangolds, so that it would be unfair, in 

 judging of the effects of the former, to calculate the result from 

 the first weighing, though on the other hand a careful examination 

 of the tables of increase which will be given, will show that several 

 of the instances of rapid increase after the second weighing occur 

 where the animals had previously lost considerably, so that the 

 natural effect of the food during the actual experimental period 

 is from this cause occasionally somewhat overstated. For, as we 

 have already remarked, any considerable loss arising from causes 

 of but temporary influence, is generally succeeded by an appa- 

 rently excessive gain, and vice versa. It is obvious that these 

 irregularities must to some extent depreciate the absolute legiti- 

 macy of the numerical results ; yet it is nevertheless thought that 

 attention thus being called to any probable sources of objection 

 to which the second weights are liable, they may be taken as the 

 fairer starting-point in comparing the effects of the several special 

 foods. These are, therefore, mainly relied upon, though the 

 results, as calculated from the first weighing of the animals, will 

 also be given, in order that the reader may form his own judg- 

 ment in the matter. 



The special foods selected were barley, malt, and beans, the 

 latter chiefly as containing a much larger per-centage of nitrogen 

 than the former. They were allotted to the several pens as 

 under : — ■ 



Pen 1. — 1 lb. of ground barley per sheep per day. 



Pen 2.- — Ground malt, with its dust (the produce of 1 lb. of 

 barley), ditto. 



Pen 3. — 1 lb. of barley, ground and steeped, ditto. 



Pen 4. — Malt and dust from 1 lb. of barley, ground and steeped, 

 ditto. 



Pen 5. — 1 lb. of malt and dust, ground, ditto. 

 Pen 6. — 1 lb. of beans, ground, ditto. 



The mangolds were supplied to all the pens in any quantitv 

 the animals chose to eat them. The beans were, from the com- 

 mencement, scarcely touched; one of the animals fed upon them 

 had soon to be removed and killed, and the rest, with the excep- 

 tion of a single sheep, lost so much as to bring the average 

 weight down below that of any of the other pens — a result which 

 , is not easily accounted for by a consideration of the character of 



