224 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



• 



some othor vegetable. One hundred pounds of boiled potatoes would 

 furnish 22.3 pounds of starch. Honey and syrups are composed almost 

 entirely of suj^ar. In the animal economy it has been pretty clearly 

 shown that the su}2:ar and starch serve as sources of energy and that 

 the two are of a])proximately equal value. Stock foods are rich in 

 starch and sugar. The stems and leaves of forage crops are made up of 

 starch in some of its many forms. Sometimes, in the economy of the 

 plant, this starch is transformed into a woody fiber needful to the plant 

 to hold it upright and give it a definite form resistant to wind and the 

 action of the elements. When the plant is cured for hay this woody 

 fiber forms part of it and when fed to the cow or sheep is partly digested, 

 though never entirely digested. Even the woody fiber has some value 

 in stock feeding. The chemist calls it crude fiber. Sugar dissolves 

 readily when taken into the mouth and is quickly absorbed through 

 the walls of the stomach and intestines. Starch is acted upon by the 

 saliva and by the juices secreted by the stomach and intestines. The 

 result of the action of these juices upon the starch is conversion into 

 a form of sugar which is absorbed. The crude fiber, as far as it is 

 digested, is also converted into a similar sugar by the action of the 

 liquids of the stomach and intestines. 



Because the starch, sugar, crude fiber, and other materials not con- 

 taining nitrogen are similar in composition and converted by diges- 

 tion into this form of sugar, the chemisis have agreed to call the whole 

 group carhohi/dratcs. It is to be noted at once that the carbohydrates 

 include a great many groups of dissimilar substances, alike in one re- 

 spect alone, namely, that, when digested, they supply the body with a 

 material either sugar or compounds similar to sugar in solubility and 

 chemical composition. 



Ash. The ashes remaining when the feeding stuff is burned have a 

 definite and essential part to play in the nutrition of animals. There 

 is usually no lack of ash, although sometimes, in case of young ani- 

 mals, fed largely on grain, the deficiency of ash manifests itself in a 

 weak bony structure and general lack of thrift. 



Diffestihility. Cattle and sheej) have four stomachs while the horse 

 and the y)ig have but one. The animals that chew the cud are thus 

 provided wilh digestive apparatus esyjccially fitted to handle coarse 

 fodder like hay and straw and extract from it as great a share as pos- 

 sible of the nutrients contained. The first stomach is sim])ly a large 

 reservoir into which the partly chewed fodder passes when swallowed, 

 there to remain for an indefinite period to soak in the slightly acid 

 liquids until again brought to the mouth for remastication. I]ven when 

 swallowed the second time y)art of ihe "cud" returns to the first slomach. 

 By this mechanism a thorough grinding of the food is assured. The 

 •material then passes to the third stomach where a set of hooks and a 

 tough lining membrane again grind the food, acting upon it much as do 

 the yiebblcs in Ihe gizzard of the fowl. 



From the third stomach the food passes directly to the fourth or 

 true stomach, the organ which corresponds exactly to the stomach of 

 the horse and the j»ig. The food cojiies to the stomach wet with saliva, 

 softened and ground fine. The saliva converts a small part of the 



