974 EXPERIMENT STATION RE(M1RD. 



Work in the Poultry Vanl. Xcnrly ]i;ilf of the Ik.oU is devoted to (lueslions 

 and answers of a practiciil niiture. 



Cost of rearing- ducklings, K. and ^^'. I'.kow n {Jour. lid. A(/i: \ London], 

 Jo {/!H)S), \(). !), /III. (iC'i-tni). — This is :i re|Mirt of results of experiments on 

 the poultry farm at the T'niversity College, Heading, to deternune the cost of 

 rearing ducklings conducted similarly to the previous experiments on the cost 

 of raising chickens (E. S. li., 10, p. 297). 



Foi-ty Aylesbury ducklings were hatched April 28, 1908, in an Incubator from 

 C>0 eggs. For 2 weeks they were fed a wet m.ish of bran, topjjings, biirley meal, 

 linseed nie.Ml, and meat. Half of them were continuetl on this feed until !) 

 weeks old and made a total gain of GO lbs. 10.88 oz. at a cost of 4.7d. jier pound 

 gain. The remainder after the first 2 weeks receivetl the same mixture in a 

 dry condition and made a total gain of GO lbs. 2.88 oz. at a cost of o.OOd. per 

 pound. The total cost of rearing a duckling 24 weeks was nearly 5s. The 

 rearing of ducks for winter marketing was, therefore, less profitable than the 

 breeding of spring ducklings. 



Miscellaneous information concerning' the live-stock industry, .7. Rohkrts 

 (U. .s'. Dc/it. Af/i'; liiir. Aniin. JikIiis. h'pt. IH07. pii. ,i7'>-'i 17 K — This article con- 

 sists mainly of statistics on the live-stock market of 1907, Federal meat inspec- 

 tion, our foreign trade of animals and animal products, home and foreign meat 

 I)rices, registered live stock in the United States, certified pedigree record asso- 

 ciations, standards for dairy products, and contagious diseases of animals in 

 foreign countries. 



The development of the export trade in pure bred live stock, G. M. 

 Rommel ( f. aS'. Dci)t. Ar/r., Bur. Anun. Indus. Ri)t. 1907, [ip. 3Ji5-3o2). — This 

 is a paper presented at the meeting of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture 

 at Columbia, January 7, 1908. The export trade of the United States in breed- 

 ing animals is small. Among the obstacles in the way of foreign trade are the 

 prevalence of disease in many foreign countries, inadequate means of trans- 

 portation to some countries, especially South. America, and inconvenient methods 

 of exchanging money and credit. A government breeding farm is recommended 

 where American types can be bred and advertised as such. 



Experiments on the absorption of fat from an isolated loop of small 

 intestine in healthy dog's, O. II. Pl.\nt (Amcr. Jour. Physiol., 23 {1908), No. 

 2, III). 65-80, p(i. 1). — Experiments were made on 3 half-grown female dogs. A 

 loop of the small intestine was made in such a way as to eliminate the influence 

 of the bile and pancreatic juices and yet not interfere with the blood snpi)ly of 

 the loop or the general nutrition of the animal. The fats used were sweet 

 cream, soap emulsion of neutral cotton-seed oil, soap solution of oleic acid and 

 sodium hydroxid, oleic acid, and neutral cotton-seed oil. These substances sepa- 

 rately, and also mixed with bile salts, were placed in the loop at different 

 periods. 



" Bile salts greatly increase the absorption of fats from a mixture that con- 

 tains free fatty acid or soap. They only slightly increase the absorption of 

 neutral oil. 



" Solutions of .«;oap, in the absence of other fat, are absorbed from a loop of 

 intestine in greater percentage than emulsified fats; this is also true of fatty 

 acid dissolved l)y bile salts. 



"Neutral oil can be ab.sorbed without the action of either bile or pancreatic 

 .inice from a loop of intestine where both these secretions are excluded. Under 

 such conditions the neutral oil becomes markedly acid in reaction. 



" Taken as a whole, the results of these exiieriments favor the theory that fats 

 are absorbed in solution rather than as emulsified fats." 



