223 Report of Farmers' Institutes 



It will be noticed that fiber has been entirely omitted in our 

 comparisons, but since we have considered in all cases the nitro<- 

 gen-free-extract of the carbohydrates, it would in no way affect 

 the results. We have been dealing with individual nutrients 

 rather than with the digestibility of the feed as a whole. It is 

 very essential to speak of fiber at this time, however, since it is 

 upon this part, of the feed that our next comparison will hinge. 

 Cattle are apparently the most efficient animals we have in di- 

 gesting fiber, and poultry, on the contrary, seem to be the most 

 inefficient (Table I.). To quote a few writers on this subject: 



Kalugine (E. S. E. 8, p. 915) — "Poultry digest crude fiber 

 even less than horses or swine, and the crude protein of buck- 

 wheat and wheat is digected in an inferior degree." 



F. Lehrman concludes that fiber is indigestible by poultry. 

 (Dent. Landw. Presse. 1901 'No. 39, p. 341.) 



H. Weiske in experimenting with geese concluded that crude 

 fiber is not digested by them. (Landw. Vers. Sta. Bu. 21, p. 

 411.) 



Prof. J. M. Bartlett, Orono, Me., records digestion of fiber 

 only in the case of a few feeds such as cut clover, India wheat, 

 and a small amount in whole oats and wheat bran, and states that 

 poultry digest very little crude fiber, (Me. Bu. 184, p. 327.) 



I think we are safe, therefore, in concluding that, if poultry 

 digests fiber at all, it is only to an inferior degree, and that we 

 may disregard it with apparent safety. 



In order to reduce our comparisons to simpler terms and to in- 

 troduce two other bases on which to compute the nutritive ratio of 

 poultry feeds, let us compare the amount of digestible nutrients 

 in one hundred pounds of feed according to five different bases 

 of computation, namely: (1) the total composition of the feed; 

 (2) the nutrients digested by swine; (3) the nutrients digested by 

 cattle; (4) the nutrients digested by cattle, omitting the fiber; (5) 

 the nutrients digested by poultry. The fourth factor is intro- 

 duced in view of the facts just stated in regard to digestion of 

 fiber by poultry. 



These values have been worked out in Table II — the figures 

 representing the amount of nutrient per one hundred pounds of 

 feed. As the table is arranged, all figures are comparable hori- 



