i6o 



Sheep Feeding Experiments. 



feeding quality. The material should therefore be bought 

 under a guarantee of analysis, and the same may be said of 

 all other feeding stuffs. The only case in which dried grains 

 did not produce better results than any other feeding stuff 

 was when it was found on analysis to be of inferior quality. 

 While it has been proved to be peculiarly well adapted for 

 sheep-feeding, it has also produced excellent results in 

 cattle-feeding experiments. 



Oilcakes, 



Linseed cake is the most popular by-fodder, equalling in its 

 consumption all the others put together. On account of the 

 large amount of mucilage it contains, it has an emollient and 

 laxative action upon the stomach and intestines, but it has 

 three main defects — it varies extraordinarily in quality, it is 

 relatively dear, and frequently adulterated. It has a very 

 marked fattening tendency, and is chiefly valuable during the 

 latter part of the feeding period when the stock have attained 

 their full size and need only to be fattened. They acquire a 

 softness of skin, fineness of wool, and what is known as bloom 

 better with this by-fodder than with the others. Only on one 

 occasion did it produce disappointing results. At Challoch 

 some linseed cake was used with an unusually high percentage 

 of albuminoids — nearly 35 per cent. — and though it was given 

 to the sheep at the rate of only half a pound per head per day 

 it was nearly two months before they got used to it and 

 during that time they made little progress. Thereafter they 

 progressed rapidly, but never overtook the lot fed on dried 

 grains at considerably less cost. The fattening tendency of 

 linseed cake was found to have a beneficial effect during cold 

 and stormy weather, permitting the sheep to maintain their 

 ground, while those fed otherwise fell back somewhat in 

 condition. 



Decorticated Cotton Cake. — This is a very concentrated cake, 

 too much so to be given with safety except in very small 

 quantities. It is most suitable for mixing with weaker 

 stuffs, but even then there is the danger that some sheep will 

 pick out of the mixture an undue amount of the cake and be 



