98 



THE STOCKFEEDER'S COMPANION 



ration which a two-year-old fattening bullock can 

 stand varies with individual animals. One will show 

 by the appearance of its dung that it is digesting it 

 satisfactorily, while another will show that some of 

 the food is passing through its body almost unchanged. 

 Ruminants and Non-Ruminants. The following 

 two tables are compiled from Kellner's figures, and 

 show the comparative digestibilities of ruminants (sheep 

 or cattle) as compared with horses and pigs. 



Comparative Digestibilities of Nutrients in Various Foods 

 by Horses and Ruminants (Kellner}. 



The above figures show the proportion of each of 

 the nutrients digested in both concentrated and bulky 

 fodders. 



The chief points to notice are that horses do not 

 digest fat (ether extract) in foods nearly so well as 

 ruminants, neither have they the same power of 

 digesting fibre in bulky foods. Protein and carbo- 

 hydrates in foods generally are digested just as well by 

 horses as by ruminants. 



