578 



Journal of Agricultural Research 



Vol. XII, No. 9 



Table I. — Composition of feces of calves 



Animal and period. 



Calf i 

 I. .. . 

 2 . . . 



3- •• 



4- ■ ■ 



Calf 2 

 I . . . 



2« . . 



3- •• 



4. . . 



Age of 

 calf 

 when 

 feces 

 were 

 col- 

 lected. 



Days. 



4 



12 



20 



30 



39 



4 

 14 



Weight 

 of dry 

 feces. 



Gin. 

 288. 98 

 270. 28 

 244. 87 

 179. 40 

 202. 00 



283. 49 



190. 21 

 152-95 



Nitrogen in feces. 



Gm. 

 14.07 



13-74 

 14. 20 

 11.66 

 17-25 



14.27 



13-54 

 10. 28 



Per cent. 

 4.87 

 5.08 

 5.80 

 6. 50 

 8.54 



5-03 



7. 12 

 6. 72 



Ether extract infeces. 



Starch in feces 



Per ci. 

 49.91 

 37-56 

 27. 70 



8.49 

 I. 07 



51.48 



3-53 

 1.03 



a Sample was lost at the farm. 

 Table II. — Proportion of starch digested by calves 



<» Sample was lost at the farm. 



CONCLUSIONS 



The figures in Table II for digested starch show that the calves when 

 from 4 to 7 days old were able to digest about one-fifth of the quantity 

 consumed; in one case 22.02 per cent and in the other 20.30 per cent. 

 When calf i was 12 to 15 days old, the percentage of starch digested 

 had more than doubled and when 3 weeks old it had nearly tripled, 

 while at 4 weeks in the case of calf i and at 3 weeks in calf 2, the per- 

 centage of starch digested was well over 90. 



While it is quite probable that a calf but a few hours old can not 

 digest an appreciable amount of starch, it can readily be seen that the 

 quantity of starch-splitting enzyms must increase very rapidly in the 

 first few days of life, for the calves under experiment, when only 3 to 4 

 weeks old, were able to digest a ration nearly 10 per cent of the dry 

 matter of which was starch. 



These results indicate that the milk ration of a calf but a few days 

 old may be supplemented with a starchy food and that the starchy 

 material may be rapidh' increased as the calf grows older. 



