42 
^nd cracked wheat did the best, financially, and returned ^12.34 per 
ton for the alfalfa they ate. 
COST OF GROWTH. 
Another method of estimating the comparative value of the differ¬ 
ent kinds of sheep is by relation to the amount of food required to make 
R pound of growth and the growth they will make per month. This is 
not so exact as the former method, because this growth has not the 
same commercial value. A pound of Mexican lamb is worth more 
than an equal quantity of western yearling. During the ninety-eight 
days from December 13 to March 20, when all the bunches were on the 
■same feed, the record stands as follows: 
FEED AND GAINS DECEMBER 13 TO MARCH 20. 
Total 
Digestible 
Value of 
Digestible 
matter eaten 
Value 
food eaten 
Weight. 
Weight Gain in 
matter 
for one pound of food for one lb. 
Dec. 13. 
Mch 20. 
Weight. 
eaten. 
of growth. 
eaten. 
of growth. 
Western yearlings, 
121 
158 
37 
242 
6.5 
$1.49 
4.2c. 
Western lambs, 
99 
137 
38 
228 
6.0 
1.43 
3.8 
Mexican yearlings. 
74 
95 
21 
194 
9.2 
1.30 
6.2 
Mexican lambs. 
61 
87 
26 
156 
6.0 
1.14 
'4.4 
It would seem at first thought that if the western lambs and the 
Mexican lambs each ate the same amount of food for a pound of growth, 
the cost of the growth should be the same. They both ate the same 
amount of the expensive grain and beets, but the Mexicans ate so 
much less of the cheap hay that it raises the average cost per pound 
'of their feed. 
VALUE OF A POUND OF GROWTH. 
During the whole winter the western yearlings gained 49 pounds 
per head at a cost for care and feed of 5.6 cents per pound. The 
western lambs gained 54 pounds at a cost af 4.8 cents per pound; the 
Mexican yearlings 32 pounds at 8.1 cents; and the Mexican lambs 37 
pounds at a cost of 6.1 cents per pound. On the average it cost 6.1 
’Cents to put a pound of growth on a sheep and they averaged growing 
43 pounds per head during the winter. They gave a net profit of 34 
cents per head, which would add 8 cents to the value of each pound 
of growth, or about 7 cents per pound as its market value. In other 
words, if a man furnished the sheep and paid seven cents a pound for 
oach pound of growth, he would come out just about even on the trans¬ 
action—that is, on a mixed bunch of western and Mexican sheeep. On 
western sheep alone he would lose money, and on Mexican alone he 
would be the gainer by the transaction. 
WHAT IS THE BEST FEED FOR SHEEP? 
No one experiment would be sufficient to offer a complete answer 
to this question, but some light is thrown on it by the records of this 
test. 
