206 
Experiments on the Feeding of Sheep. 
the hay and barley. It would appear, therefore, that the amount 
of indigestible matter contained in the food, practically set a 
limit to the (quantity taken into the stomachs of the animals. 
Consistently with the last supposition, the results given in the 
4th column of the Summary Table (IX.) show that, in the case 
of the hay-chaff alone, when the sheep had eaten as much as they 
were able, there was but little digestible material left available 
for increase after that which was necessary for respiration and 
the other current functions of the body had been supplied. 
Thus, it required 4339^ lbs. of hay-chaff to produce 100 lbs. 
increase in live-weight — an amount which would contain rather 
more than four times as much dry substance as is necessary to 
produce the same amount of increase with a good mixed diet of 
succulent and dry food. In the three other experiments, in all 
of which there was a much larger proportion of digestible and 
assimilable matter, there was only about half as much dry sub- 
stance of food required to produce the same amount of increase. 
But, even in their case, the amount was more than twice as much 
as is required with a good mixture containing a due propor- 
tion of succulent food. 
The facts just stated show how important it is, in point of 
economy, to supply fattening animals with food from which they 
can store up a large amount of increase within a given time. 
For, the great expenditure of the constituents of the food is in 
keeping up the respiration and other current functions of life ; 
and this, so to speak, unproductive expenditure will bear a much 
larger proportion to a given amount of saleable increase when 
the latter is but tardily stored up. 
Although, as has been stated, the amount of food required to 
produce a given amount of increase was very large, even where 
the sheep had beans, or barley, or beans and linseed-oil, in addi- 
tion to the hay, a comparison of the results of the three experi- 
ments is of soine interest. The 1 lb. of beans per head per day, 
in Pen 2, supplied considerably more nitrogenous substance than 
the 1 lb. of barley in Pen 3 ; yet it required almost identically 
the same amount of beans as of barley — and with the former 
about 100 lbs. more of hay-chaff — to yield 100 lbs. increase in 
live-weight ; and the live-weight of the sheep fed on the barley 
yielded a higher proportion of carcass, and also of loose inside 
fat. In fact, the mixture of barley and hay was more fattening 
than that of beans and hay. 
It is cjuite consistent with the results of numerous former feed- 
ing experiments, that, provided the supply of nitrogenous con- 
stituents have reached a sufficient amount, the increase of the 
fattening animal should, beyond that point, be more dependent 
upon the supply of digestible and assimilable ?;o?j-nitrogenous 
