388 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



Remarks on the Above Tables of Digestibility. 



The various reports and bulletins published by the dif- 

 ferent experiment stations in the United States have been 

 examined, and results of the digestion experiments reported 

 carefully tabulated. It is believed that in many cases these 

 fio'ures can be taken as a very fair representation of the 

 digestibility of American feed stuffs. The writer recognizes 

 the great amount of work done by German investigators in 

 this line, and believes further that in many cases it would 

 not be advisable to repeat this work. It has been suggested, 

 for example, that our climatic conditions being to a consider- 

 able degree difterent from those prevailing in Germany, such 

 influences would cause a considerable difference in the com- 

 position and digestibility of many of our fodder articles. It 

 must not be lost sight of, however, that our own country 

 possesses very much wider ranges of climate than are to be 

 found in the entire German empire ; and, if climatic influ- 

 ences do cause noticeable variations, then a wider variation 

 would exist l)etween the grass grown in Maine and in North 

 Carolina than between that grown in Hohenheim and Munich. 

 There are, however, many coarse fodder articles and by- 

 products peculiar to the United States which are well worthy 

 of study, and upon which considerable work needs to be 

 done. 



It can be stated that in the digestion experiments here 

 tabulated the coarse fodders have with few exceptions been 

 fed alone, while in the case of grains, by-products and 

 roots, the digestibility of hay has first lieen determined,, 

 and then a certain portion of the hay replaced by roots or 

 o-rains. 



