1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
295 
In harvesting grain, binding is hard, and when 
there are thistles, very disagreeable work, and 
it is time we got rid of the latter, and had a ma¬ 
chine to do the former. Pitching sheaves is 
comparatively light work. I would much rather 
pilch than load or unload. But where is the 
killing labor? Is it in thrashing? With the 
exception of feeding, if there is any really hard 
work about thrashing you will generally find 
that it is assigned to a boy ! I had a man leave 
me because I would not let him have three men 
to help him on the straw stack. We were 
thrashing as we drew in from the field, and one 
man did the pitching. If we had been putting- 
grain, straw, and all in a stack before thrashing, 
iie would have required only a boy to help him. 
But to stack the straw alone required four men ! 
Such is the force of tradition. Depend upon 
it, the hard work on a farm is a myth—an idea 
of the past, and no young man need hesitate 
about devoting his life to agriculture on account 
of the great labor and strength required. If he 
has health, industry, energy, perseverance, a 
cultivated mind, some mechanical ingenuity, 
and a good stock of common-sense, witli a big- 
heart in his bosom that will never allow him to 
neglect an animal, let him join the great army 
of farmers. We need such men, and I cannot 
see why his chances of success are not as great 
as they would be if he adopts any other business. 
A gentleman asks me to give some account 
of Mr. Lawes’ experiments in feeding sheep. 
I do not think it is possible to give a satisfacto¬ 
ry account of them, without going into details, 
and this would occupy too much time. Mr. 
Lawes’ original flock of sheep was common 
Hampshire Downs. He commenced to improve 
his farm and his sheep at the same time. And 
it is difficult to improve a flock of sheep with¬ 
out improving the land, or to improve the land 
without improving the sheep kept on the farm. 
He selected out bis best ewes and put them to 
the best thorough-bred ram he could hire or 
buy. The first year I was at Bot.hamstead, he 
paid $300 for the use of a ram for the season, 
and this was done with no reference to selling 
sheep except to the butcher. That it paid him 
there can be no doubt. From having quite an 
ordinary flock of sheep he soon had a flock of 
several hundred that it would be difficult to 
beat. It was accomplished by raising good 
grass and clover, and by the use of thorough¬ 
bred rams and liberal feeding. 
The first four series of experiments were made 
on these Hampshire Down sheep, and the object 
was to ascertain the best foods for fattening sheep. 
In the first series, there were four pens, with 
five sheep in each pen. All the sheep were 
allowed as many sliced Swede turnips as the}’ 
would eat; and in addition to this, the sheep 
in Pent had oil-cake; those in Pen 2, oats; 
those in Pen 3, clover hay, and those in Pen 4, 
oat straw. The sheep were allowed all the oil¬ 
cake, oats, clover hay, and oat straw they could 
eat. The experitnem lasted fourteen weeks 
(or more accurately, thirteen weeks and six 
days). At the commencement of the experi¬ 
ment the sheep averaged about 110 lbs. In Pen 
1, the sheep ate 6’| s lbs. of oil-cake, and 89 3 | 4 
lbs. of Swedes each per week, and gained 1 lb. 
j.4 oz. Pen 2, 8 1 1 2 lbs. oats, 82 1 L lbs. Swedes, 
and gained 2 lbs. ’| 2 oz. Pen 3, 8*| 4 lbs. clover 
hay, 116 lbs. Swedes, and gained 2 lbs. 3 3 i 4 oz. 
Pen 4, ’I-, lb. oat-straw, 120 1 1 4 lbs. Swedes, and 
gained 1 lb. 5 3 | 4 oz. 
The sheep would not eat the oat straw, and 
the gain in Pen 4 may be taken as showing the 
feeding value of Swede turnips alone. The 
most remarkable result, and what, I recollect, 
surprised all of us very much while the experi¬ 
ments were in progress, was the fact that the 
sheep did better with clover hay than with oil¬ 
cake. If the sheep had had clover hay as well 
as oil-cake, we should doubtless have had a 
much more rapid gain. 
There is another fact of great practical im¬ 
portance as showing the advantage of induc¬ 
ing animals to eat more food. The difference 
between Pens 3 and 4, we may assume to be 
that the sheep in Pen 3 ate 1 lb. of clover hay 
per day more than Pen 4. And this 1 lb. of ex¬ 
tra food gave 14 oz. of extra increase. Or in 
other words, one ton of clover hay, fed in this 
way, gave 250 lbs. of mutton ! The great secret 
of profitable feeding is to get the animals to eat 
all they will, and then induce them to eat a lit¬ 
tle more. 
The second series commenced in June, on a 
lot of Hampshire Down yearling wethers, that 
averaged about 120 lbs. each. Pens and num¬ 
bers, same as before. The sheep in all the pens 
had all the clover hay they Avould eat., and in ad¬ 
dition, Pen 1 had oil-cake; Pen 2, linseed; 
Pen 3, barley, and Pen 4, malt—1 lb. being al¬ 
lowed to each sheep per daj r . 
Gain 
Food consumed per head per head 
per week. per vieek. 
lbs. oz. 
Pen 1, 7 lbs. oil-cake, 22 lbs. 2 oz. clover hay. 1, 15*4 
Pen 2, 7 tbs. linseed, 20 lbs. clover hay. 1, 11 14 
Pen 3, 7 lbs. barley, 20 lbs. 14 oz. clover hay. 1, 14 
Pen 4, 0 lbs. 9 oz. malt, 20 lbs. 12 oz. clover hay. 1, 13 
The sheep with oil-cake ate the most clover 
bay and gained the most. Barley seems to be 
nearly as nutritious as oil-cake. The other 
sheep did not gain quite as much as those fed 
with the oil-cake, but they ate less clover hay. 
It should be recollected that the experiment 
was made during the summer months, and that 
the sheep were confined in pens and had noth¬ 
ing but dry food and water. They drank large 
quantit ies of water, so much so that a Member 
of Parliament opposed to the malt tax and who 
came to see the sheep during the experiment, 
expecting to find those having malt gaining 
much faster than those having barley, suggest¬ 
ed that the sheep were drinking altogether too 
much water, and persuaded Mr. Lawes to cur¬ 
tail their allowance. This was done for one or 
two weeks, but the scales showed that the sheep 
knew more than the M. P., (though one of the 
leading farmers of England,) and after that they 
ivere again allowed all they would drink. 
I believe it would always pay to let sheep 
have a rack of hay in the field while at pasture, 
especially in rainy weather rvlien the grass is 
green. It is an old saying that “sheep like 
roast meat rather than boiled.” 
It is worth mentioning, that the remainder 
of the flock from which the experimental sheep 
were selected, Avas turned into a forty-acre 
field of rich, highly manured clover, and had 
besides, 1 lb. each of oil-cake per day. The 
whole flock was weighed again in eleven weeks 
and had gained on the average over 3*| 4 lbs. 
each, per week. One of the sheep gained 44 
lbs. in the eleven Aveeks. There is nothing bet¬ 
ter to fatten sheep than rich clover pasture, and 
a little oil-cake twice a day in addition / 
The next series of experiments Avas made 
with turnips alone, groAvn Avith different ma¬ 
nures. The sheep Avere ewe lambs, about 9 
months old, and Aveighed about 75 lbs. each. 
None of the sheep did Avell. Older sheep would 
probably have done better, but Ayliite turnips 
alone are not very fattening. 
In one pen it took, in round numbers, 13,000 
lbs. of turnips to produce 100 lbs. of increase; 
in another pen, 20,000, and in another pen, 
28,000 lbs! and in the other pen the sheep 
weighed less after the ten Aveeks of feeding than 
at the commencement. 
The next series was made to ascertain the 
relative value of barley and malt. It shows 
pretty conclusively that there is no special ad¬ 
vantage in converting barley into malt for fat¬ 
tening sheep. The greatest increase Avas ob¬ 
tained from barley ground and steeped in rva- 
ter for twenty-four or thirty-six hours before 
feeding. In this pen, with a pound per day of 
steeped barley and mangel wurzel, the sheep 
gained over 2‘| 2 lbs. each, per week. 
As before said, these experiments were made 
to ascertain which is the best food for fattening 
sheep. And the result of the Avliole is that, pro¬ 
vided the sheep have a liberal supply of avail¬ 
able carbonaceous and nitrogenous matter, it 
makes very little difference what name it is 
known by! Much more depends on the char¬ 
acter of the sheep than on the character of the 
food. We should aim to get well-formed, well- 
bred sheep, and then feed them liberally with 
such food as we happen to have. I have little 
doubt that sheep will fatten as rapidly on good 
timothy hay and Indian corn as they will on 
clover hay and oil-cake ; but the manure from 
the latter Avill be Avorth as much again as from 
the former. 
The next experiments Avere made to ascertain 
which breed of sheep, on the sa/me food, would 
fatten most, rapidly, in proportion to the food 
consumed. The experiments Avere made on 
Sussex Downs, Hampshire Doavus, cross-bred 
wethers, cross-bred eAves, Leicesters and Cots- 
wolds, forty sheep in each pen. 
The cross-breds Avere derived from a Leices¬ 
ter ram, on a Sussex Down ewe. All the sheep 
had clover hay, oil-cake, and SAvede turnips. 
The experiments lasted twenty weeks. The 
sheep ate and gained as follows: 
Food consumed by each 
sheep, Aveekly. 
Av’gln. 
of each 
Oil- 
Gake. 
Clover 
Hay. 
Swede 
Turnips 
sheep 
weekly. 
Sussex Downs. 
lb oz. 
0 0'/ 2 
lb oz. 
5 1214 
lb oz. 
77 12*4 
lb oz. 
2 0*4 
Hampshire Downs.... 
7 12M 
7 0 
100 3*4 
2 10?4 
Cross-bred wethers... 
5 14 
S 914 
82 14 
2 3*4 
“ ewes. 
5 9*4 
5 5 
78 0 
2 2 
Leicesters. 
5 14 
5 9*4 
S3 13 
2 3*4 
Cotswolds. 
8 1 
0 M14 
113 4 
3 254 
The average Aveight of wool per head was: 
Sussex Doavus, 5 lbs. 10 oz.; Hampshire Downs, 
6 lbs. 4 oz.; Cross-bred wethers, 6 lbs. 7 oz.; 
Cross-bred eAves, 7 lbs. 3‘| 2 oz.; Leicesters, 8 lbs. 
2*| 4 oz.; and CotsAvolds, 9 lbs. 4 3 | 4 oz. 
The CotsAvolds not only gave by far the 
greatest increase, and the heaviest fleeces, but 
gave the greatest increase and the most wool 
in ‘proportion to the food consumed; and when 
killed, they gave the heaviest Aveight of carcass 
in proportion to live weight—dressing 58 per¬ 
cent, Avhile the Leicesters dressed less than 
54 3 | 4 per cent. The CotsAvolds have less offal, 
and eat more food in a given time than any 
other breed ; and this is the reason Avby they gain 
more rapidly in proportion to the food con¬ 
sumed. They have hardy constitutions, a good 
appetile, vigorous digestion, a quiet disposition, 
and little offal. 
I can’t but believe that great experiments are 
yet to be made in sheep, as mutton and wool 
producers. Flesh meat is a very costly article 
of food, even yith the Cotswolds, which fur¬ 
nish meat at a less cost than any other animal, 
except, a well-bred pig, and it requires over 1.5 
lbs. of dry food to produce a pound of dry 
