INFLUENCE OF MANURES ON MUTTON. sie 
eleven lots. At the beginning of the season it was decided, 
in the light of past experience, to put six sheep on Plots 
2 and 6, eight sheep on Plots 1 and 11, and nine sheep on 
each of the others. . The sheep were selected so that the 
average weight of each lot was the same, and so that sheep 
of corresponding weights—above average, average, and under 
average—were put upon each plot. 
Throughout the season the sheep grew with regularity. 
there were no deaths, and only one animal—on Plot 2—had 
to be removed owing to illness, and another substituted. In 
this case, as also in the case of a sheep on Plot 1, which was © 
ill for a part of the last month, but was not removed, due 
allowance has been made in the calculations. 
In 1900 the experiment Jasted from May 23rd until 
October 1oth, that is for twenty weeks, as in 1898 and 1899. : 
The sheep were weighed at the end of each period of four 
weeks, after having been fasted for twelve hours. 
The average weekly gains per head, for each month, of all 
.the animals on the plots (including No. 11) are given in the 
following statement, which also exhibits the rate of growth 
during each of the past seasons :— 



Average Average Average Average 
ee Weekly Weekly Weekly Weekly | 
pe Gain in Gain in Gain in Gain in 
1897. 1898. 1899. 1900. 
Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Ws: 
During the 1st four weeks 226 3°43 2°90 3°70 
i O16 ar ane 2°01 3°41 ZR2 1°89 
5 20 eesti I‘IO 177 1°62 2°19 
. AS Ove wt ee Ge 0°32 1°25 1°77 Tae 
on eave ee wail Roce ve 0°24 loss 1°35 o'8I 
Mean for whole Season. 1°42 1°87 1°95 2°00 



The spring of 1900 was more backward than that of 1899,and 
as aconsequence the plots were nearly three weeks laterin being 
stocked than in the previous year. The first month was 
favourable, and the sheep made the largest weekly increase 
yet recorded in the course of the experiment, but the late 
spring involved late autumn grazing, and the falling-off in 
