Afjriciiltural Chemidr ij . — Puj Feeding. 



497 



as the experiment proceeded, being much greater in pen 5, where 

 Barley-meal was given alone as the ad libitum food, than in 

 pen 4, where it was mixed with Bran. 



The progressive rate of -productiveness of a given weight of 

 food in this Third Series (see Table XVL, Division 2) is very 

 variable, and does not show anything like regularity of gradation^ 

 The increase obtained for a given weight of food during the 

 whole period was, however, generally good in this Series. In 

 pen 2 it was about as high as in any case in the three Series ; 

 and we may readily suppose, that the mixture of Cod-fish and 

 Indian-meal given in this pen 2, would supply more digestible 

 assimilable matter in a given weight of the food, than that in any 

 other pen in the three Series of experiments. 



Upon the whole then, the experiments show very strikingly^ 

 the rapid decrease in the rate of consumption of food to a given 

 iceiglit of animal as it fattens. The fact of such a decrease is,, 

 we believe, pretty currently admitted, though we presume that 

 the extent of it will appear from these Tables to be much 

 greater than is generally supposed. At the same time it is seen^ 

 that although there is this great decrease in the amount of food 

 consumed to a given weight of animal as it matures, yet that the 

 productiveness — at least in gross increase in live weight — of a. 

 given amount of food, is much more nearly constant throughout 

 the fattening process. It has, however, been observed, that there 

 is perhaps a greater tendency to an increased rate of productive- 

 ness of the food in gross increase as the animal matures, the 

 greater, within certain limits, the proportion of the more non- 

 nitrogenous constituents of the food. At any rate it is undoubted,, 

 that it was under these circumstances of a larger proportion of 

 the non-nitrogenous constituents, that the decrease in the rate of 

 consumption — indicating maturity — was by far the most rapid. 

 And, in reference to this point it may be interesting here to observe, 

 that it appears from an extensive series of experiments which we 

 have made with a view of determining the probable composition 

 of the gross increase in weight of the fattening animal, that the 

 nearer it approaches to maturity the greater will be the proportion 

 oifat in the gross increase obtained — and also, that the greater 

 the proportion of fat, the greater is the proportion in the gross 

 increase of real dry substance. It appears therefore, from the 

 results, that not only is the amount of food, required to a given 

 weight of animal, the more diminished as it fattens — the more 

 within certain limits the food contains of the ?zo7i-nitrogenous 

 constituents — but likewise, that it is these more ?zo?2-nitrogenous 

 foods that seem to give any indication of an increased rate of pro- 

 ductiveness in real dry increase as the fattening process proceeds. 



It will be observed, that in our remarks upon Tables XIV., 

 XV., and XVI., we have almost confined our attention to the 



