44 



COMPARATIVE DIGESTIBILITY BY HORSES AND RUMINANTS. 



In computing- the digestible nutrients furnished by different feeding 

 stuffs, it has been a common custom to use available data obtained from 

 digestion experiments with farm animals without distinguishing 

 between ruminants and nonruminants, although differences had been 

 pointed out by a number of observers. The extended investigations 

 of Wolff''* and his associates on the comparative digestive power of 

 horses and sheep furnished much information on the sul)ject. Dietrich 

 and Konig* summarized the available data regarding the question and 

 discussed it. The matter was also considered in the summary pre- 

 pared by Jordan and Hall.'" 



The following table compares the coefficients of digestibility obtained 

 with ruminants (chiefly sheep) and horses, the values given being the 

 average of a large number of European and American experiments. 



Table 4. — Comparison of digestibilUy of a number of different feeding stuffs by ruminants 



and horses. 



«Loc. cit., p. 60. 



i* Zusammensctznng und Vcrdaulichkeit der Futtermittel, 2. ed., vol. 2, pp. 1070,1128. 



c U S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experimental Stations Bui. 77. 



