BREEDING. 
them, in too tender a condition of their body, to 
the storms and rigours of winter. 
A natural law is believed to exist, occasioning 
an excess of males or of females in a flock, ac- 
cording to modifying circumstances which are, 
in a great degree, under the control of the far- 
mer. This law is supposed to be, that, when 
animals are in good condition, well fed, and re- 
strained in breeding, or when, by any combina- 
tion of circumstances, they are in the most fa- 
vourable state for increase, they produce an ex- 
cess of females; and when they are in a bad 
climate, or on stinted pasture, or have already 
had a numerous offspring, they produce an excess 
of males. But whatever be the precise nature 
of the law itself, some experiments which indi- 
cate and illustrate it are sufficiently obvious for 
many of the purposes of practical guidance. M. 
Charles Girou de Bugareingues proposed, in 1826, 
to the Agricultural Society of Séverac, so to deal 
with flocks of sheep that an excess of males or of 
females should be produced at option; he divided 
each of two flocks which were submitted to him 
into two equal parts, the one to produce an ex- 
cess of males, and the other an excess of females; 
and he recommended that the divisions which 
were designed for the excess of females should 
be served by very young rams, and enjoy an 
abundance of pasture, and that the divisions de- 
signed for the excess of males should be served 
by vigorous rams of four or five years of age, and 
enjoy no more than a moderate pasturage. In 
the first experiment, the division for excess of 
females were served by one ram of fifteen months 
and another of two years of age, and the two- 
year old ewes of it produced. 14 males and 26 
females, the three-year old ewes produced 16 
males and 29 females, the four-year old ewes pro- 
duced 5 males and 21 females, and the ewes of 
five years and upwards produced 18 males and 
8 females,—_thus showing a complete triumph of 
the principle in all the ewes below five years of 
age, to the total amount of 76 females against 35 
males, but at the same time showing a failure or 
rather misapplication of the principle in the case 
of the older ewes, in the proportion of 18 males 
to 8 females; and the division for excess of males 
were served by two strong rams of respectively 
four or five years of age, and the two-year old 
ewes of it produced 7 males and 3 females, the 
three-year old ewes produced 15 males and 14 
females, the four-year old ewes produced 33 males 
and 14 females, and the ewes of five years and 
upwards produced 25 males and 24 females,— 
thus showing a triumph of the principle in the 
aggregate of the division to the amount of 80 
males against 55 females. The second experi- 
ment is reported by M. Girou as follows :-— 
“During the summer of 1826, M. Cournuéjouls 
kept, upon a very dry pasture, belonging to the 
village of Bez, a flock of 106 ewes, of which 84 
belonged to himself, and 22 to his shepherds. 
Towards the end of October, he divided his flock 
I. 
BREWING. 529 
into two sections, of 42 heads each, the one com- 
posed of the strongest ewes, from four to five 
years old,—the other, of the weakest beasts un- 
der four or above five years old. ‘The first was 
destined to produce a greater number of females 
than the second. After it was marked with 
pitch in my presence, it was taken to much bet- 
ter pasture behind Panonse, where it was de- 
livered to four male lambs, about six months old, 
and of good promise. The second remained upon 
the pasture of Bez, and was served by two strong 
rams, more than three. years old. The ewes be- 
longing to the shepherds, which I shall consider 
as forming a third section, and which are in gen- 
eral stronger and better fed than those of the 
master, because their owners are not always par- 
ticular in preventing them from trespassing on 
the cultivated lands, which are not enclosed, were 
mixed with those of the second flock. The re- 
sult was that the first section gave 15 males and 
25 females, the second 26 males and 14 females, 
and the third 10 males and 12 females,” M. 
Girou also made similar experiments with horses 
and cattle, and found them issuing in similar re- 
sults.— Vapier’s Treatise on Store-Larming.—Cul- 
ley on Live Stock—Hayward’s Science of Agricul- 
ture.— Prize Essays of Messrs. Boswell, Berry, 
Christian, and Dallas in Transactions of THigh- 
land Society— Papers by Mr. Dickson and others 
in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture—Paper of 
Earl Spencer in Journal of Royal Agricultural 
Society of England—Oommunications to the Board 
of Agriculture.— The Farmer's Journal. — The 
British Farmer's Magazine-—Sir John Sinclair's 
Code of Agriculture—Buel’s Farmer’s Instructor. 
— Spooner on Sheep.— Youatt on the Horse.— 
Youatt on Oatile—RKham’s Dictionary of the Farm. 
—Stephen’s Book of the Farm. 
BREWERY. See Brewine. 
BREWERY-WASTE. The various refuse of 
the processes of brewing, available for the pur- 
poses of manure. Malt-dust, though often thrown 
away in small breweries, is extensively sold from 
large ones, and fully appreciated as a manure. 
See the article Maur-Dust. But much of other 
refuse of breweries, which might be easily and 
cheaply collected, and would exert a powerfully 
fertilizing influence upon the soil, is, in almost 
all cases, destroyed as sheer waste. A sediment 
separates and remains when the clear portion of 
the boiled infusion of malt is run off; another 
sediment, consisting of refuse or insoluble fer- 
ment, is deposited in the vessels in which the 
processes of fermentation are conducted; and 
both of these are rich in nitrogen, and act with 
the highest efficiency in decomposing the peat, 
sawdust, dry-leaves, and other strongly carbon- 
ized materials of compost heaps. 
BREWING, The juices of fruits contain 
sugar, which is essential to the vinous fermenta- 
tion; but this does not exist, in any important 
quantity, in seeds. Instead of it, however, we 
have starch, and this may combine with water, 
A 
