318 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 181. 



the kind of grains composing the mash. If much rye, barley and wheat 

 are used the coefficients, especially those for fiber, will be lower than 

 when corn is the predominating grain. 



Sianmary of Coefficients of Feterita. 



Feterita, or Sudan durra, is one of the grain sorghums, which include 

 also Kafir, milo, durra and kaoliang. According to Morrison "it has 

 slender stems carrying more leaves than milo but less than kafir, and 

 erect heads bearing flattened seeds. Over much of the drier western 

 portion of the gram sorghum belt these crops are more sure, and even 

 on good soil return larger yields than corn." It has been stated that 

 the average crop is 25 bushels per acre, with a maximum of 80 bushels 

 (56 pounds) for feterita. The sample tested by us came from a carload 

 received by an eastern grain dealer, and contained 10.41 per cent, water. 

 Its dry matter consisted of 1.80 per cent, ash, 13.23 per cent, protein, 

 1.40 per cent, fiber, 80.23 per cent, extract matter and 3.34 per cent, 

 fat. In chemical composition it resembles corn, being a little higher in 

 protein and lower in fat. Hay and gluten feed served as a basal ration, 

 and the feterita constituted 30 per cent, of the total ration. The results 

 of the trial agree closely. It is surprising, however, that in total dry 

 matter the coefficients fall so much below corn. Neither the protein nor 

 the fat appear to be as well digested; the extract matter, however, ap- 

 proaches in digestibility that contained in corn. Corn contains sub- 

 stantially 85.7 pounds of digestible organic nutrients in 100, and on the 

 basis of our results feterita contains 71.06 pounds, thus indicating that 

 the latter has only 83 per cent, of the nutritive value of corn. There 

 are no data from which to compute its net energy value. It is doubtful, 

 however, if such data would show any wide variations from that secured 

 as a result of digestion data. Further experiments with the feterita 

 should be made, however, before drawing positive conclusions. ^ 



1 See note 2. 



* Since the above was written, Fraps of the Texas Station, Bui. No. 203, reports results with 

 this grain showing higher digestion coefficients than those secured by ourselves. These co- 

 efficients are inserted above, together with our own. 



