in the Winter of 1887-8. 
479 
doubt, tliat tliis may be botli safely and profitably used for 
feeding sheep off on roots. For the third year in succession 
wheat has been tried, and each time has shown very good results. 
I was careful in this experiment not to disturb the sheep by 
more frequent weighings than were necessary, and the experi- 
ment was allowed to proceed throughout with one weighing at 
the commencement and one at the end only. The more I see of 
experiments, the more I am convinced of the undesirability of 
frequent weighings. As an instance of this I may note that owing 
to the difficulty of disposing locally of so many sheep at one 
time, they were sent off in two batches, one half (four from each 
pen) on April 9, the other half on April 16. On re-weighing 
after the week's interval, the same feeding being continued, 
the remaining sheep in each of the pens were found, with one 
exception, to have lost weight, as follows : — 
lbs. 
Pex I. (4 sheep) .... loss 12 
Pen II. „ .... „ 14 
Pex III. „ .... gain 3 
Pex IV. „ .... loss 27 
Pex V. (3 sheep) .... „ 12 
For those interested in the question of live and dead weights, 
I append the following statistics. All the sheep were weighed 
Date 
Live 
weight 
Diite 
Fasted weight 
Date 
Car- 
Average 
fasted 
weight 
in 14iD. 
stones I 
stones 
Aver- 
age 
carcase 
weight 
per 
sheep 
.in 81b. 
stones 
en I. (4 sheep . 
Oats) ii „ . 
Pen II. f 4 sheep 
Barlei/)\i „ 
eiilll. C. , 
{ai'!eij) [ " 
Pen IV. f 4 sheep 
Whe.it) \ 4 „ 
'en V. f , , 
yheat){ " 
ercentage of 
ofiEal (including 
whole wool). 
|Cwt. qrs. lbs, 
Apr. 9:5 3 25 
„ 16 5 3 12 
Apr. 9 5 10 
„ 16 5 3 14 
Apr. 9 ' 5 3 5 
„ 16 G 0 16 
Apr. 9 5 3 24 
„ 16 5 2 27 
i 
Apr. 9 5 2 16 
16 4 1 16 
cwt. qrs. Ibs.=lllb. st. 
St. lbs, 
Apr. 10 5 2 0 = 44 0 
„ 17 5 1 20 = 43 6 
Apr. 10 5 1 0 = 42 0 
„ 17 5 2 3 = 44 3 
Apr. 10 1 5 2 0 = 44 0 
„ 17 5 2 10 = 44 10 
Apr. 10 
5 1 16 = 43 2 
17, 5 1 2 = 42 2 
Apr. 10 i 5 0 24 = 41 10 
„ 17 1 4 0 7 = 32 7 
Apr. 11 
„ 18 
Apr. 11 
„ 18 
Apr. n 
,, 18 
Apr. 11 
„ 18 
Apr. 1 1 
, 18 
St. Ib5.| St. lbs. 
11 5|}10 13 
42 IflOll 
40 4 
43 0 
40 3 
40 7: 
39 3 
31 3 
}11 li 
}10 91 
}10 8| 
St. lbs. 
10 3 
10 li 
10 3i 
10 i 
10 Of 
Pen I. 
45 75 
Pen II. 
4619 
Pen III. 
46-21 
Pen IV. 
45-56 
Pen V. 
45-71 
