30 



Management of Sheep. 



No. 19. 



10 lambs, fed upon cut swedes and clover-chafF, having been weighed 

 at the end of the other experiment, were again weighed on the 9th of De- 

 cember. They were found to have gained during the month 10 lbs. 

 each, and consumed 22 lbs. of turnips each per day. 



No. 20. 



10 lambs fed upon cut carrots and clover-chaff were weighed as above 

 on the 9th of December, and were found to have gained 9i lbs. each, and 

 consumed 22|-lbs. of carrots each per day, — 



Thus proving that the carrot cannot be given to sheep with equal profit, 

 when compared with the swede turnip, the carrot being more expensive 

 and hazardous in its cultivation, and producing rather less animal food 

 from a given weight at this season of the year. 



Thus, by a careful review of these experiments throughout, it 

 will be found that warmth is proved to be an important feature 

 in sheep husbandry, and is a subject affecting the rural economy 

 of the whole nation. For instance, taking the average tempera- 

 ture of a sheep's body at 100 degrees, and the average tempera- 

 ture of our climate at 60 degrees, in every respiration of air the 

 animal loses by the exchange animal heat equal to 40 degrees, which, 

 if not again supplied by the elements of food, or artificial warmth, 

 the animal would cease to exist. Hence the animal frame be- 

 comes a machine for the conversion of vegetable food into animal 

 food, as the animal heat produced by the supply of food is gene- 

 rated by the combustion caused by the union of the oxygen of the 

 external air with the carbon, hydrogen, and other elements of 

 the food : thus, when the temperature of the animal body is below 

 the standard of heat,* it requires a proportionate artificial warmth 

 to economize the vegetable food, and assist the fattening propen- 



* All our great authorities represent the variation of temperature of the 

 animal body to be confined within very narrow limits indeed. Liebig, in 

 fact, hardly allows it any scope at all. "The most trustworthy observa- 

 tions prove that in all climates, in the temperate zones, as well as at the 

 equator or the poles, the temperature of the body in man, and in what are 

 commonly called warm-blooded animals, is invariably the s«we." — Liebig's 

 Organic Chemistry of Physiology, p. 19. But, whatever be the exact 

 amount of variation of animal temperature, Mr. Smith, as an eminently 

 practical man, will, I am sure, admit, that in practice it would never do to 

 vary the treatment of our flock whenever the thermometer showed a mi- 

 nute alteration in the temperature of their blood, and that the simpler the 

 practical rule can be made which is founded on scientific principles, the 

 more likely it is to be generally acted on. I would suggest, therefore, that 

 instead of endeavouring to " keep the animal body at an even tempera- 

 ture," it would be better simply to recommend flock-masters to keep their 

 stock as warm as they can, consistently with perfect ventilation, and that 

 the principal points to pay attention to are— 1st, That the cost of the 

 shelter is not such as to absorb the profit arising from its use ; and, 2nd, 

 That the health and well-doing of the sheep should decide whether the 

 warmth and confinement are carried too far or not. — H. S. Thompson. 



