New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



543 



transformed, without waste, into a sugar which is completely 

 absorbed into the blood. It is true at least that repeated trials 

 have failed to reveal the presence of either sugar or starch in 

 the fecal residue, which indicates complete solution and absorb- 

 tion. Other compounds which contribute to the so-called digest- 

 ible carbohydrates, such as cellulose and pentosans are digested 

 in part only, and we are not able to declare whether that which 

 is digested serves the purposes of nutrition as eflSciently as the 

 hexose sugars and the starches. The writer has been inclined 

 to regard the high comparative value of grain foods as partly 

 explained by the kind and not wholly by the proportion, of com- 

 pounds digested. 



The percentage of total sugars and starches was determined in 

 the several materials that were used in compounding the two 

 rations previously given. All the carbohydrates soluble in an 

 extract of malted barley grains were assumed to belong to these 

 compounds in Rations 1 and 2. 



The Starch and Sugar in Certain Feeding Stuffs. 



After having carried our analyses to this point it is possible 

 to calculate the amounts of these two classes of nitrogen-free 

 compounds in Rations 1 and 2. 



