Expei'imcnts on the Fccdituj of Sheep. 
189 
principles than to suj^o-ost special courses of action. In some 
nei<;lib()uili()ods very fjreat practical difficulties may exist in the 
wav of their being carried out, but at least, if the principles be 
reconrnized as sound, adverse customs will not be allowed to 
spread if they exist, or to be introduced if they have not yet got 
hold, England always deals very tenderly with vested interests, 
and is wise and far-sighted in so doing. In the matter before 
us the only vested rights at all in conflict with the public good 
are those of tenants in possession ; this interest is by no means 
identical with that of the most enterprising and successful 
class of farmers, who, for themselves or their belongings, are 
quite as much takers, as holders of farms. It is against the 
takers of farms that these rights most militate, the landlord occti- 
pying almost a neutral position between the two parties. 
On the other side, if there are rights not established, which 
might on the whole conduce to agricultural wealth, and so 
benefit the public, this is partly on account of the risks they 
involve ; the difficulty of adjusting the terms arising from our 
imperfect knowledge ; the exaggerated form which these rights 
sometimes assume, and some apprehension of that strong English 
leaning, of which we have just observed the favourable side, 
to sanction the growth even to excess of any usage based on a 
concession. — P. H. Frere. 
XI. — -Fifth Report of Experiments on the Feeding of Sheep. 
By J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., F.C.S., and Dr. J. H. Gilbert, 
F.R.S., F.C.S. 
In several Reports in this Journal on the Comparative Fattening 
Qualities of different Breeds of Sheep* — Hampshire and Sussex 
Downs, Cotswolds, Leicesters, Cross-bred Wethers, and Cross-bred 
Ewes — we have given the particulars of the feeding, with good 
fattening food, and under cover, of forty or more of each of the 
descriptions mentioned, from the age of nine or ten to that of fifteen 
or sixteen months. When fattened up to this point, about two-fifths 
of each lot were sold alive ; about two-fifths were slaughtered and 
sold dead, and the particulars obtained relating to the quantity 
of the meat produced under the system of early and rapid 
fattening were recorded. The remaining animals were removed 
from the shed to the open field, and fed till Christmas, that is, 
for some seven or eight months longer. It is the results of the 
feeding of these few sheep from the moderately fat to the very 
* 'Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,' vol. xii., Part 2 ; 
vol. xiii,, Part 1 ; and vol. xvi., Part 1. 
