76 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



when fully hydrolized, these substances are as digestible as 

 starch and its hydrolized product ; and in this respect they 

 differ from the pentoses and their anhydrides. J. Konig 

 and F. Keinhardt^ report experiments with a man in Avhich 

 canned peas, dried peas and other foods rich in pentosans 

 were added to a mixed diet. The results indicated that the 

 pentosans were very thoroughly digested and assimilated. 



A number of experiments have been made with farm ani- 

 mals, to study the digestibilit}^ of the pentosans. In 1892, 

 Stone 2 fed corn meal and wheat bran to rabbits, and found 

 that about 60 per cent, of the pentosans did not reappear in 

 the ffeces. A like conclusion was draAvn a year later by 

 Stone and Jones ^ from hay and different grasses fed to 

 sheep. Lindsey and Holland^ fed hay and different grains 

 to sheep, and found from 55 to 90 per cent, of the pentosans 

 digested, traces only being recognized in the urine. Weiske 

 and Wicke reported similar results.^ Sherman*^ found the 

 pentosans in wheat bran to be 66.2 per cent, digested. 

 Fraps ^ determined the digestibility of pentosans in a number 

 of cattle feeds. The pentosans in the crude fibre he termed 

 pseudo-pentosans, which proved less digestible than what he 

 termed the true pentosans, as found in the nitrogen-free 

 extract. 



In addition to the experiments already reported,^ the 

 writer^ has made a number of others with different varieties 

 of hays and grains. 



The table which follows contains the percentage and di- 

 gestion coefficient of the pentosans, and, for the sake of 

 comparison, the percentages and digestion coefficients of each 

 of the other groups of substances in the several feed stuffs. 



' Zeitsoh. Untersuch. Nahr. u. Genussmtl., 1902, No. 3, pp. 111-116. 

 ^ Am. Chem. Journal, 14, p. 9. 

 •■' Agricultural Science, 5, p. 6. 



* Twelfth report of Massachusetts State Experiment Station, p. 175; report 

 of the Society for Promotion of Agricultural Science, 1895, p. 54. 

 "■ Zeitsch. f. physiol. Chem., 20, p. 489. 

 « Journal of the Am. Chem., Sec. 19, p. 308. 

 ' North Carolina Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 172. 

 ' Loco citato. 

 » Together with E. B. Holland. 



