Investigations Concerning the Horse. 



283 



Maintenance experiments with Jiorses — Gr andean and Leclerc. 



These figures illustrate very plainly the weak point in a diet 

 containing much hay or straw, viz., the large quantity which 

 must be given to animals to produce a certain effect, due to the 

 low digestibility of these feeds. 



444. Protein required in maintenance rations. ^ — In construct- 

 ing a maintenance ration for an animal it is important to know 

 what is the smallest quantity of protein required to replace the 

 daily waste of the body; the ration should of course never supply 

 less than this amount. The quantity does not seem to have been 

 exactly determined in the case of the horse, but judging from 

 the French experiments it must be quite small. The average 

 amount of digestible albuminoids received daily by the three 

 horses during fourteen months while fed entirely upon hay was 

 only . 54 pounds per 1, 000 pounds live weight. This quantity cor- 

 responds to that determined by German experiments as mini- 

 mum quantities for an ox of 1,000 pounds kept on a maintenance 

 diet. The minimum for the horse is, however, less than the 

 above average. Horse No. 3 during June and July received a 

 daily average of only .45 pounds per 1,000 pounds weight, yet 

 this was apparently sufficient, as the horse gained about five 

 pounds in weight during these two months. In another case 

 the same horse received daily, during one month, only .37 pounds 

 of digestible albuminoids per 1,000 pounds live weight. The 

 horse gained somewhat in weight while at rest, but the analyses 

 of the urine showed that he lost rather more nitrogen than he 



1 After Warington, loc. i;it. 



