On the Value of the Oil in Linseed-cake as a Food for Stocl-. 409 
sheep, and were weighed, &c., as the others, in order that they 
might be ready at any time to replace any of the latter which 
might be ill, or die, and thus prevent any interference with the 
original conditions of the experiment. 
The food, which was given with great regularity to all the 
sheep, was linseed-cake, clover chaff of excellent quality — which, 
after the wet summer of 1888, was only obtained with great 
difficulty and expense — and cut swedes. Of the two former 
foods each sheep at the commencement of the experiment received 
lb. of cake, and ^ lb. of hay daily. On December 31 the cake 
and hay were both increased to | lb. of each substance per day, 
and this quantity was continued until the end of the experiment. 
The swedes were given ad libitum. The quantity received by 
the sheep was, however, carefully weighed throughout the ex- 
periment, and at the end of each day any unconsumed portion 
was weighed off" and recorded. The sheep were penned widely, 
with abundant space, and side by side in a field very suitable 
for sheep folding, and after a fast of twenty-four hours were 
separately weighed at monthly intervals, or as near to those 
periods as weather permitted. 
The experiment began on December 3, 1888, and ended 
March 25, 1889. During this period the two lots of sheep were 
in every respect but one treated exactly alike, the only exception 
being that one lot received more oil than the other in the cake 
given to it, whilst the second lot received, instead of the oil, an 
equal weight of the other constituents of the cake. 
Tables I. and II., on pages 410 and 411, give the weight of 
each sheep at the beginning and end of the experiment, as well 
as in each intervening month, for sixteen weeks. 
At the January weighing the wool of all the sheep was 
rather dryer than at any of the other recorded dates. On each 
of the other occasions the wool was damp, though not wet, but 
equally damp in the case of every sheep. This circumstance, 
however, is perhaps worthy of notice as likely slightly to de- 
press the totals for January 28 as compared with those for other 
dates. 
Ouly two sheep died during the sixteen weeks of the ex- 
periment, one in each pen. These were immediately replaced 
by one from each of the reserved pens, which had been receiving 
the same quantity and quality of cake, and which were of prac- 
tically equal weights to the sheep they succeeded. Although 
the general results of the experiment will be best seen in Table 
III., it may be observed here, in reference to Tables I. and II., 
that while the total increase of the sheep receiving cake rich 
in oil was 1,148 lbs., those consuming the cake low in oil 
