1110 



EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Digestion experiments with, sheep and steers, J. M. Bartlett (Maine Sta. 

 Bid. 110, pp. 185-208). — Following the usual methods the digestibility of timothy 

 hay, mixed hay, hay largely timothy, corn fodder, corn silage, soy bean and corn 

 silage, spring-wheat bran, mixed feed from winter wheat, coarse and fine corn meal, 

 cotton-seed meal, wheat middlings, and a mixture of corn meal and linseed meal was 

 studied with sheep and with steers. 



In addition digestion experiments with clover silage and clover hay were made 

 with sheep, and with feed flour, linseed meal, and gluten feed with steers. Some of 

 the average results follow: 



Average coefficients of digestibility obtained with sheep and steers. 



Considering the results as a whole the author calls attention to the fact that the 

 steers had a greater capacity than the sheep for digesting coarse feeding stuffs low in 

 protein, such as timothy hay and corn fodder. 



"The more nitrogenous rations were as well and in some cases better digested by 

 the sheep than by the steers, and the addition of nitrogenous grains to the ration 

 appeared to materially increase the sheep's digestive capacity. 



"The feeding of grain rich in protein with corn meal apparently increased the diges- 

 tibility of the ration, particularly that of the protein. 



" It is evident from a study of these results and others before published that as great 

 differences in digestion coefficients will occur between sheep, individually, as is likely 

 to occur between sheep and steers. But if sheep are to be used to determine coeffi- 

 cients for bovines, great care should be taken to select strong animals that are good 

 feeders and will eat coarse fodders readily, otherwise results which are too low are 

 likely to be obtained." 



In connection with the digestion experiments the income and outgo of nitrogen 

 was determined. 



Methods of analyzing the entire animal body, A. E. Vinson [Inaug. Dm., 

 Univ. Gottingen, 1904, PP- 76). — The work of earlier investigators which has to do 

 with slaughter tests is summarized and data reported regarding the methods of deter- 

 mining different constituents of flesh and fat, and the results of studies of fat from 

 pigs fed sugar, meat meal, and peanut oil as compared with that of pigs fed a normal 

 ration. 



The author recorded the total amount of the different kinds of fat, the total flesh, 

 bones, and some similar data, and studied the character of the different sorts of fat 

 and of the heart and heart fat with special reference to the effect of the different 

 feeding stuffs tested. A comparison of the iodin numbers shows that the fat found 

 withing the skeleton — for instance, the kidney, intestine, and heart fat — is different 



