iyU5.] PUBLIC DOCUxMEXT — No. 38. 45 



Part II. — Experimknts in Animal Nutrition. 



1. Digestion Experiments with Sheep 



J. B. LINDSEY.^ 



This station has given considerable time and study to the 

 digestibility of coarse and concentrated cattle feeds. The 

 first experiments were made in the autumn and winter of 

 1892-93, and the results published, together with a descrip- 

 tion of the method employed, in the eleventh report of the 

 Massachusetts State Experiment Station. The results of 

 further experiments were published in the twelfth report. 

 A summary of all experiments made between 1894 and 1902 

 will be found in the fifteenth report of the Hatch Experi- 

 ment Station, pp. 82-101. Experiments made during 1902 

 appeared in the sixteenth report of this station . 



The experiments here described were made daring the 

 autumn of 1903 and winter and spring of 1904. The full 

 data are here presented, with the exception of the daily pro- 

 duction of manure and the daily water consumption, in which 

 cases, to economize space, only averages are presented. 



The period extended over fourteen days, the first seven of 

 Avhich were preliminary, collection of faeces being made 

 durino^ the last seven. Ten o-rams of salt Avere fed each 

 sheep daily, in addition to the regular ration. Water was 

 before the animals at all times. 



Two lots of sheep, grade Southdown wethers, were em- 

 ployed in the several trials, known as the old and the young 

 sheep. The former were five to six years of age, and had 

 been used by the station for a number of years ; the latter 

 were dropped in 1902, and were employed for the first time 

 during the autumn and winter of 1903-04. 



1 With E. B. Holland, P. H. Smitli, W. E. Tottingham and J. G. Cook. 



