86 Experiments on the Comparative Fattening Qualities 
is fortunate that so undoubted is the superiority of the pure 
breeds, under certain circumstances and in certain localities, that 
we need have no fear of the deterioration of our crosses on that 
score. 
In other words, it results that although there is an evident 
relation between the amount of food required to })roduce a given 
quantity of mutton, and the quality or value of the mutton pro- 
duced, yet the variations in the rale of increase to food consumed 
on the one hand, and in money-value on the other, are not of 
themselves sufficient to afford any decisive conclusion as to the 
comparative economy of the different breeds founded merehj on 
the productiveness of the food under certain circumstances of fat- 
tening. Perhaps the result of the comparison of the several breeds 
in this one respect is as satisfactorily brought out in these ex- 
periments as we can hope it will be experimentally at all. And 
it would seem that the farmer must, after all, be guided in his 
choice mainly by the many practical and business considerations 
which it is not within the province of such investigations as 
those we have recorded directly to illustrate. 
So much, then, for the comparative fattening equalities of the 
several breeds, when protected from the weather and fed rapidly 
for the market upon a liberal supply of good food. We have seen 
that although the extraordinary rates of increase frequently spoken 
of have not been met with (nor were they expected) in these 
somewhat extensive and carefullv conducted experiments, yet it 
is strikingly brought out that under the modern system of rapid 
fattening with a liberal supply of purchased or saleable food, a 
weight of mutton can he produced in fifteen to eighteen months, 
which not long since generally required at least twice that period. 
And if the quality of the rapidly-fed mutton is not quite equal 
in the judgment of the rich and connoisseur, there can still be 
no doubt which course must be adopted in the long run in the 
production of food for a large and increasing population and 
demand. 
Although, however, we have already carried our Report of the 
progress of our comparative experiments with the different breeds 
only up to the point at which good marketable mutton may be 
produced, yet, as frequently alluded to in our papers, a few of 
each of these lots of sheep were fed for some six months more ; 
and the results of these extra or somewhat over-fattened sheep 
must form the subject of a supplementary and separate Report. 
The following is a short enumeration of useful and practical 
facts relating to sheep-feeding, which our experiments have 
brought out : — 
