Experiments on the Feeding of Sheep. 199 
Tai!LK IV. 
Carcass, in Stunes of » lbs. 
Carcass, in lbs. per Quarter. 
Moderately 
Fat. 
Very Fat. 
Moderately 
Fat. 
Very Fat. 
stones, lbs. 
12 6 
9 5 
12 5 
9 4 
9 2 
8 6 
stones, lbs. 
17 6 
13 2 
18 5 
14 4 
14 0 
13 5 
lbs. 
25J 
19| 
25i 
19" 
18i 
111 
lbs. 
o5j 
26i 
37i 
29 
28 
27i 
The above weights of the meat yielded by the " moderately-fat" 
sheep, at an age of fifteen or sixteen months, are equal to those 
formerly obtained at twice the age, or more ; and they are 
satisfactory examples of what may be attained under the 
modern system of feeding, adapted to the production of mutton 
on a large scale. It may be doubted, indeed, whether equal 
weights and fatness can be attained at an earlier age, or greater 
weights and fatness at so early an age, without a sacrifice 
of quality. In fact, although it is only by a system of early 
and rapid fattening that sufficient meat can be produced for 
the masses of the population, it must be admitted that mutton 
thus early matured does not so well satisfy the limited demand 
of the connoisseur as that which is less artificially produced. 
The weights of the " very fat " carcasses, in spite of the loss of 
weight of many of the animals during part of the second period, 
were, after all, really heavy for sheep that were two or three 
months short of two years old. The demand for mutton so fat 
as it will become at an age of more than eighteen months, under a 
system of early and sustained high feeding, is, however, but 
limited, and it is only exceptionally, and when sold at a fancy 
price, that it can be as profitable to the producer as that which 
is more moderately fattened. 
The feeder should not lose sight of the fact that, so long 
as an animal lives, the expenditure of the constituents of food, 
by the respiratory process is never stopped. If it has reached the 
point at which the increase it yields declines in amount, or in 
value, in proportion to the food consumed, further increase will 
obviously be obtained at a larger proportional expenditure of food 
in the respiratory process. Or, if the animal at any time do not 
gain, or should lose weight, the whole of the food then consumed 
is (leaving out the question of the manure) expended to no other 
purpose than to keep the machine of the body in working order ; 
and the whole of the food so consumed and expended, as well as 
that which actually yielded increase, has to be reckoned against 
the total increase obtained. 
