ee INFLUENCE OF MANURES ON MUTTON. 

6) the second and third months, and (c) the fourth and fifth 
months of the seasons 1899 and 1900,* for Plots 5, 6, 7, 8 





and 9g :— 
Average Percentage of Increase 
Live weight obtained in 
Plot. Treatment per Acre. Dope ee 
per Acre, 
Seasons Ist 2nd & 3rd | 4th & 5th 
1899, 1900.!;} Month. Months. | Months. 
lbs. | 
5 Su oTuRCS ge) : : 120 28-8 lea Age 
6 | Nothing - - 46 42°3 42°9 | 
7 | sje Sulphate of 
| Potash - - 122 22°00 hep sae 
8 | Super + Ground Line - - 136 257. TN Ee 
9 | Super + eulphat of | 
Ammonia - - 118 36°0 | 2678 

Contrasting Plots 5 and 6, it will be observed that not only 
is the average yield nearly three times as great where phos- 
phates have been used, but that the season has been greatly 
prolonged, so that the sheep on Plot 5 were enabled to make 
26 per cent. of the increase in the last period, as against 
14°8 per cent. made by the animals on the unmanured land. 
From the grazier’s standpoint Plot 6 displays about as bad 
a state of affairs as can well be conceived. The increase is 
very small, and two-fifths of the entire gain is made in the 
first month. The mean monthly gain in the second period is 
just half as much as in the first; and in the third period it 
is one-third of that in the second. A sheep naturally gains 
less as the season progresses, and as the herbage becomes 
drier, but such a rapid decrease in the rate of growth as is 
here shown indicates that the animal is thriving very badly, 
and it is little wonder that when presented to the salesman 
at the end of each season, the sheep from Plot 6 are almost 
always valued at less than they cost, in spite of their increase 
in weight. 
Oe ees 6 
© The results of seasons aera and 1898 have not oe included. In 1897 the 
grazing period extended to four months only, and in neither year were the sheep fasted 
before being weighed. Thus the weights got in the later months will not bear com- 
parison with the weights of the earlier months as they do in 1899 and 1900. At the 
end of the first month of 1899 the sheep were weighed unfasted, but in preparing the 
statement a loss of 5 per cent. of the total live weight has been assumed as representing 
. >} . . ° 
the result of ‘‘ fasting,” and corrections in the actual weights recorded at the end of 
the first month have been made. 

