332 Agricultural Chemistry — Sheep- Feeding and Manure. 



?2<9rc-nitrogenous, than of the nitrogenous constituents supplied in 

 the food ; whilst the much larger amount of the latter consumed 

 in the oil-cake pen than in any of the others, with, at the same time, 

 a nearly identical amount of the former, would seem to afford con- 

 firmation of this supposition. 



Turning to Table 11, we observe a striking uniformity in the 

 quantities of nitrogen consumed to produce a given amount of 

 increase. It is seen, however, that the case most exceptional in 

 this respect is that of the dry malt in pen 2, in which, according 

 to the Table, a less amount both of dry organic matter and of 

 nitrogen has been required than in any of the other cases with 

 malt or with barley. It has been before explained, however, 

 that the indications of that pen, as calculated on the experimental 

 period, were probably more open to objection than those of the 

 rest, whilst the results of pens 4 and 5, the one with steeped and 

 the other with the larger amount of dry malt, would seem to dis- 

 prove the correctness of the conclusions to which the figures as 

 they stand might lead. It has also been supposed that the 

 effects due to the oil-cake in pen 6 may probably be somewhat 

 overstated in the Tables : if this be not the case, however, the 

 figures in this Table may be taken to show, that in the pen with 

 oil-cake, wherein the consumption of nitrogen, both within a 

 given time and in proportion to other organic constituents, was 

 half as great again as in any of the other pens, the amount of it 

 consumed to produce a given amount of increase is almost 

 identical with the average of the other pens, whilst that of the 

 gross dry organic matter is very much less than in any of the other 

 instances. This fact, if it be to be relied upon, would lead us 

 to conclude that the nitrogen taken in the pens with barley and 

 malt, though proportionally uniform throughout, was insufficient 

 in amount to turn to full account the large quantity of highly 

 perfected non- nitrogenous compounds as supplied in the cereal 

 grains in these cases. The weekly supply of it, indeed, was not 

 much below the average in the former series, but in these the 

 food was rarely, if ever, so rich in the more perfected non -nitro- 

 genous constituents as in the instances at present under notice. 



It was our intention to have given the results of a fifth series 

 of experiments with sheep before leaving the question of the 

 gross increase in live iceight of the animal ; as, however, the de- 

 tails connected with this branch of our subject have already ex- 

 tended beyond the limits originally anticipated, we shall defer, until 

 some future occasion, the further consideration of such matter. 

 Before closing the present article, however, it will be useful to 

 provide in a tabular form a summary of some of the results 

 already discussed, and to this we shall subjoin a collected state- 

 ment of any of such results of other observers in relation to this 

 subject as we at present remember to have met with. 



