Proceedinos oi'' Seventeenth Xormal Institute 231 



From this table it would seem that fowls are a little more 

 efficient in digesting protein, and less efficient in digesting carbo- 

 hydrates and fat, than are cattle. They appear, on the other hand, 

 to be less efficient than swine in digesting protein and carbo- 

 hydrates, but more efficient in digesting fat. But the point of 

 particular interest lies in the comparison of the total nutrients 

 when computed as an average for the seven feeds for each group. 

 The fiber-free cattle-digested factor 70.74 more closely approaches 

 the corresponding value for poultry 68.87 than does any other 

 factor, and it is this that I wish to leave for your consideration. 

 The difference here is so slight that it might be accounted for by 

 a difference in composition of the grain used, by experimental 

 error in readings or in computations, or by the individual char- 

 acteristics of the animal. But in any case, the results seem 

 rather consistently comparable; and it is hoped that further in- 

 vestigation may be carried on to check up the accuracy of the 

 method. 



I wish to say just a word here as to the reliability of the 

 figTires used in these tables. It is interesting to note that 

 according to Henry's ^' Feeds and Feeding" and Maine Bulle- 

 tin 18-i, we have recorded more digestion trials with corn, wheat 

 and oats by poultry than we have by cattle, namely: corn, 

 by cattle 12, by poultiy 10; oats, by cattle 6, by poultry 

 13 ; wheat, by cattle 4, by poultry 10. Yet we place con- 

 siderable confidence in Prof. Henry's computations which give us 

 his " Table III." 



Another point I wish to make is, that in the event that it 

 were found desirable, upon further investigation, to use for our 

 poultry the fiber-free coefficients for cattle, it is a very easy 

 matter to compute the amount of digested nutrients direct 

 from the appendix tables of Prof. Henry's book. In fact, for 

 my own information, I have already made computations for 

 over one hundred feeds, and find that they appear to check up 

 very well and to look reasonable. 



Considering these two points and in view of the fact that it 

 will undoubtedly be a great many years before we will have suffi- 

 cient data to allow the use of digestible coefficients obtained direct 

 from poultry, and also because we have constant need for working 



