Show Sheep and Cattle Can mutton be more cheaply produced than beef As bearing upon th subject Stewart calls attention to the fact that the sheep is a source of double icome meat and wool Ho refers too to the experiments of Sir J B Lawes in reference refer-ence to the percentage of food utilized or stored up by different animals and these experiments presented the sheep in avery a-very favorable light Of the dry food consumed he found that sheep stored up increased weight 12 per cent while cattle cat-tle only laid up increased weight 8 percent per-cent that is eight and onehalf pounds of < r food increased the live weight of cattle So that relying upon these experiments experi-ments sheep must be considered a excellent cellent utilizers of food a producing a many pounds of mutton besides the wool from a given quantity of food a can be produced of beef and a the best mutton brings as high price as the beef it would appear on this basis the sheep would give the fleece as extra profit over gve If this is not too favorable fa-vorable a iew the sheep on suitable lands must be considered among the most profitable of farm stock It is true the dairy cow brings her profitable flow of milk to offset that of wool but the dairy cow does not lay on flesh while producing milk a does the sheep while wool A fleece of five producing feece fve pounds of wool grown in a year requires only a daily growth of onefifth of an ounce which can take but a small portion of food to produce The mineral matter taken from the soil by tho fleece i only 10 ounces per year and i six half mutton mut-ton sheep represent a cow the whole mineral constituents taken by the six be 96 and fleeces would only e > ounces about 10 pounds of nitrogen while the ordinary cow yielding 4000 pounds of milk would take twentysix pounds of mineral matter or ash and twentyfive of nitrogen or fortythree times as much mineral matter and thirteen times a much nitrogen a the fleeces of the sheep I Stockman J r = b |