190 
Experiments on the Feeding of Sheep. 
fat condition which form the subject of the present short com- 
munication. 
There were thus further fattened — 
8 Hampshire Downs, 
8 Sussex Downs, 
6 Cotswolds, 
8 Leicesters, 
8 Cross-bred Wethers (Leicester ram and Southdown ewe), 
8 Cross-bred Ewes (Leicester ram and Southdown ewe). 
During what may be called the frst period of feeding, that is, 
from November or December, when the sheep were nine or ten 
months old, to the following April or May, when they were fifteen 
or sixteen months old, and moderately fat, they received, under 
cover, a liberal daily allowance (according to their weight) of 
oilcake and clover-chaff, and also as many roots as they chose to 
eat, the amount of which was weighed. During the second period of 
feeding (to which the present Report specially refers) the reserved 
lots above enumerated received from April or May up to the 
following Christmas, in the field, the same amount of oilcake * 
in proportion to their weight as formerly, and, in addition, hay- 
chaff and roots at the commencement of the period ; then green 
clover or grass during the three summer months, from the early 
part or middle of June to the early part or middle of September ; 
and then again, hay-chaff and roots, up to the termination of the 
experiment. 
After a few general observations on the progress made in this 
second period, we propose to call attention to the comparative 
amounts of food consumed, and to its comparative productiveness, 
during the " first " and " second " periods respectively— that is, 
from the store to the moderately fat condition in the one case, and 
from the moderately fat to the very fat in the other. 
The sheep were weighed monthly ; and it was found that 
every one of the lots, in fact almost every animal of these 
previously house-fed and moderately fat sheep, lost weight, more 
or Jess, under the exposure to the heat and drought of summer, 
when feeding in the field upon clover or grass, notwithstanding 
that they had at the same time a fair allowance of oilcake also. 
The Hampshire and Sussex Downs were fed through the 
summer and autumn of 1851. From May 8 to June 19 they 
had, besides oilcake, hay-chaff and roots. From June 19 they 
were turned for three months upon green clover. During the 
first montli of the three the weather was very hot, and there was 
* The Cotswolds had lentils instead of oilcake during a considerable portion of 
the "second" period of feeding. 
