1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
annually, then sheep of one hundred pounds weight, 
would produce annual fleeces of just half a ton each. 
Some may be surprised at the assertion, that a ton 
of dry hay contains the elements, of a ton of wool. 
Here are the figures. One hundred pounds of hay and 
wool contain (omiting fractions) the following elements; 
Carbon, .,. 50 
Hydrogeu,. 8 
Nitrogen.....»....*,_... 3 
Oxygen,..38 
The truth is that, of the elements of wool, contain¬ 
ed in the food of sheep, not more than an average of 
one pound in three hundred, ever goes to the forma¬ 
tion of wool. A small amount of the same elements go 
to the formation of flesh and fat; for the most unlike 
of these, viz., flesh and wool, are composed of the same 
elementary substances, and nearly in the same propor¬ 
tions. They contain respectively in one hundred parts: 
Hay. 
Wool 
50 
.. 6 
7 
17 
22 
97 
98 
Carbon, .. 
Flesh. 
.......51 
Wool. 
50 
Hydrogen,. 
7 
Nitrogen,.. 
...15 
17 
Oxygen, ............ 
.21 
22 
94 
96 
The remainder of these elements go to supply those 
wastes described in the former part of this article. 
When it is proved that the average of shee^> at matu¬ 
rity, appropriate to flesh, fat, and wool, less than one 
pouud in a hundred of the elements of these substances 
received in their food, we are prepared to admit that 
some sheep may lose more than others. 
A given amount of food will not produce like re¬ 
turns in the form of flesh, but the result will be affect¬ 
ed by various circumstances, as, 1st, the age of the 
animal. 
In the very young, a larger part of the food goes to 
the promotion of bone? ; and in the very old, a larger 
part i3 wasted. The old machinery becomes worn and 
imperfect. 
2. It is affected by climate. A few ounces of rice 
form as much human flesh in China, as ten pounds of 
whale blubber near the poles. 
3 It is affected by action. A sheep in constant ex¬ 
ercise, will not make as much, flesh from a bushel of 
corn as one lying at rest. Of two horses, one at rest 
and the other at hard labor, if fed alike, one may be¬ 
come fat and the other poor. Hence the practice of 
shutting animals up in the' dark fo fatten. It is on this 
principle that hybernating animals pass the winter in 
a semi-torpid state without food. 
4. It is affected by the amount of intellect The 
laboring brain consumes food as really as the working 
body, and the sheep with the smaller and less active 
brain, will form more flesh on a given amount of food, 
than the more active and intelligent. 
5. The product of food is affected by temperament. 
This is more obvious, but no more real, in the human 
species. Of two men, one may have a low lymphatic 
temperament, in which ^he stomach predominates, and 
is the most active and important part of the system. 
The brain is small and indolent—the hair thin, soft 
and suefv—the eyes dull and lead-like—the blood 
pale and thin, crawls through the veins with slow and 
languid pare, while the respiration, r*.3 slow as consist¬ 
ent with life, consumes hut little carbon, and leaves 
much for the production of fat. The only organ of the 
brain which appears to have any thing to do is all 4 
mentiveness. In such a man, the brain, nerves, mus¬ 
cles and blood all rest, that the stomach may work. 
This man 1 ? evident destiny is to sit quietly—eat heart¬ 
ily—sleep soundly, and be fat. The other may have 
a high nervous temperament and an ever-working 
brain, whose fires, fed on all the combustibles of the 
system, send lightnings over the electric nerves and 
burning lava through the veins. The idea of fs.fc on 
such an organization, is absurd. It would be as ra¬ 
tional to expect fat from feeding Cleopatra’s mummy. 
In the first case, the food is used for the formation of 
flesh and fat ; in the seoond, it forms neither, but is 
exhausted on the operations of the mind. Thus the 
same food might produce in one case fat, and in the 
other thought, between which those who believe that 
equal food- gives equal products, must form an equa¬ 
tion. 
Such are some of the numerous causes which affect 
the demand for food and its products. But these cir¬ 
cumstances do not affect all animals alike. Probably 
no two sheep ever had precisely the same organization, 
either in kind or perfection of mechanism. A slight 
defect in any part of the wonderfully complicated ma¬ 
chinery, affects the result A broken tooth—an im¬ 
perfection in the minute gland which supplies the sa¬ 
liva—the least mistake of the stomach in the composi¬ 
tion of the gastric juice—a slight inaction of the lac- 
teals, or any one of ten thousand other imperfections 
of the animal machinery, would affect the result. 
That sheep have their organizations both different 
in kind, also in the kind and degree of imperfections, 
is proved by observation and experiment. Every man 
who observes sheep, knows that of different kinds fed 
alike, one will produce more w T ool, another more flesh or 
fat, and a third neither. The same animal will not excel 
in the production of both Jlesh and icool. The reason 
seems to be that as both these products are composed 
of the same elements, those used to form one cannot 
at the same time be used to form the other. Hence 
the incompatibility of wool and mutton—the one must 
yield to the other. Some are so happily organized as 
to produce a fair quantity of both flesh and wool, but 
excellence in both is not to be expected. 
Erom the deductions of philosophy and well estab¬ 
lished theory, we are compelled to conclude that ani¬ 
mals do not consume food in proportion to their size, 
neither do equal quantities of food produce equal re¬ 
sults. The subject might be safely left here as fully 
proved, and my task done, but fortunately reason and 
theory have in this ease been fully sustained by ex¬ 
periment. 
It has been proved by actual trial, that if a number 
of sheep be fed alike, some will have too much, others 
not enough, and perhaps no two give precisely the 
same result in either flesh, fat, or wool; and that the 
larger sheep may be so, not because it has taken more 
food, but because it has made a different use of it. 
The same has been observed among other animals. 
If two pigs, for example the Suffolk and land-shark, 
of different organization, but equal size, be fed alike, 
the former will leave a part of his food and become fat, 
while the other may consume all, and gain nothing. 
The difference is that one converts his food into flesh, 
while the other exhausts his in locomotion and noise. 
So also among the human species, it is observable 
that size has very little connexion with quantity of 
food, and that those who consume most remain small, 
lean and hungry stilt One who has had great expe¬ 
rience in feeding animals, Col. Sherwood, says some 
where, that in feeding animals, “ their size is no rule 
at all.” 
But the most satisfactory and decisive experiments 
on this subject, are those of J. B. Lawes, Rothamsted, 
England. The object of his experiments was to deter¬ 
mine, with the greatest possibie certainty, the differ¬ 
ent results from feeding different kind of sheep. The 
experiment was performed with large numbers of the 
various kinds, and continued during several years. 
They were conducted with the greatest care, and are 
worthy of careful study and entire confidence. Their 
practical value can scarcely be overrated. The result, 
so far as pertinent to this subject, was— 
L No two kinds of sheep consumed food according 
to their sixes. 
2. No two- kinds produced wool according to their 
food. 
