Experiments on the Fcediiuj of Sheep. 
200 
iinusually great during- that period, it is to be borne in mind that 
it uas on May 17 that the sheep lost their wool, which had 
become very oppressive, and hence probably the large amount of 
water taken lor some time previously, and then the sudden and 
very great decline. There was also a notable decline in the 
amount of food consumed in each of the four pens during the 
week immediately succeeding the shearing. 
Finally in regard to the connexion between temperature and 
the amount of food consumed, it should be observed that the 
records given in Table V. only relate to the spring and summer, 
and to the actual temperature at three selected houis of the day, 
so that they do not by any means so satisfactorily illustrate the 
influence of the conditions of atmosphere upon the consumption 
of food as they would, had they included the preceding winter, 
and also the registry of the maximum and minimum tempera- 
tures, and the conditions of moisture. Nor, on the other hand, 
is the whole of the decline of consumption towards the end of 
the period to be set down to the increased temperature as the 
season advanced. There is, as a rule, a diminution in the amount 
of food eaten in proportion to the weight of the body as animals 
latten, so that a portion of the diminution indicated in the Table 
must be attributed to the progressive condition of the animals 
as to maturity. Consistently with this, the diminution is the 
least where the sheep had hay alone and scarcely increased at 
all, and it is the greatest Avhere the tendency to fatten was alsc. 
the greatest. 
In concluding this short supplementary report of experiments 
on Sheep-feeding, it may be well to state, in a few words, the scope 
and main bearings of the series of Papers to which it belongs, 
illustrative of the relations of the food consumed to the weight of 
the animal, and to the increase in live-weight produced, under 
different circumstances. 
In the first article on the subject, published in this Journa]! 
now nearly thirteen years ago (vol. x. part i.), the chief object 
was to show the comparative feeding values of different descrip- 
tions of food ; and one important result arrived at was, that when 
foods contain a certain proportion of nitrogenous substance, which 
is generally reached in the ordinarily adopted food mixtures, the 
amounts required, both by a given weight of animal within a 
given time, and to produce a given amount of increase in live- 
weight, were then more dependent on the amount of the digestible 
and assimilable won-nitrogenous constituents than on an increased 
proportion of the nitrogenous ones. 
In the next series (vol. xii. part ii., vol. xiii. part i., and 
vol. xvi. part i.) it was sought to show the comparative adapta- 
A OL. XXIII. V 
