58 



production. This conclusion seemed the more reasonable in view of 

 the fact that other investigators have found that fowls have little 

 capacity to digest fibre. 



W. von Knieriem* reports coefficients of digestibility for crude 

 fibre by fowls to be as follows: for rye, 2.4 per cent ; oats, .5 per 

 cent; barley, .2 per cent. (Experiment Station Record XIII, p. 179). 



I. Kaluginet in reporting on the digestibility of certain foods by 

 hens states that these fowls digest crude fibre less completely than 

 either horses or swine and reports the following percentages : ( Exper- 

 iment Station Record VIII, p. 915). 



Peas, ■ 13-74 



Buckwheat, 2.02 



Wheat, 29.95 



F. Lehmann$ reporting on experiments in feeding peas and wheat 

 to poultry states that they digest no crude fibre. 



Wheeler** makes the following comment on Lehmann's results : 



" It will be observed that fibre proved indigestible. Should further 

 experiments fully substantiate the practical indigestibility of fibre by 

 poultry, the percentage of it contained in feeding stuffs may be con- 

 sidered immaterial so far as nutritive value is concerned." 



The Station has carried through eleven experiments comparing 

 rations having respectively relatively high and low proportions of 

 fibre. In six of these experiments, the nutritive ratio has been prac- 

 tically identical in the two rations compared, about i to 6. In three 

 of the rations, the high fibre combination of foods had a nutritive 

 ratio of about i to 4.3, the low fibre combination of foods a nutri- 

 tive ratio of about i to 6.3. In most of these experiments barley and 

 oats have been used freely in the high fibre rations. Buckwheat 

 and millet have also been used in some of them. In the low fibre 

 rations, corn and broken rice have been employed. In five of these 

 experiments milk albumen has been the source of animal food : in 

 six beef scraps. 



On the high fibre rations the egg production has been as follows 

 per hundred hens daily: lowest number in any experiment, 18; 

 highest 42 ; average 32.1. On the low fibre ration, the egg produc- 

 tion has been as follows per hundred hens daily : lowest number in 

 any experiment 29; highest 46; average 37.4. The results have 



* Landw. Jahrb., 29, (1900), No. 3. pp. 483-523. 



t Zapiski Novo-Aleksandriiskago institiita Selvskago Khozyaistva i Lyesovodstva, 9 

 (1896), III, pp. 217-257. 



t Landw. Vers. Sta. 21, p. 411. 



** K. I. Station Bulletin 84, p. 156. 



