16 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. rPiib. Doc. 



Table 2. — Digestibility of Feeds, — Comparison of Hen with 

 ' Ruminants. 



Very little experimental work has been done with poultry 

 on this subject, not because it is not important, but because of 

 the physiological difficulty already mentioned, arising from 

 the fact that the fseces and urine unite in the cloaca before 

 being voided, which makes it very hard, indeed, to use poultry 

 for digestion studies with satisfactory results. However, 

 there are a few men who have attempted work along this line, 

 and we think with considerable success. Among these are 

 Dr. Woods of the Maine station, who obtained the results 

 above shown. He used capons because of their inactive habits, 

 and caught the faeces in a rubber bag attached to them with 

 a sort of harness. His work shows that fowls are able to 

 digest protein almost as well as cows can. ISTote how well they 

 handle beef scrap and corn, but do only fairly well with oats, 

 barley and wheat, and very poorly with bran. 



Table 3. — Digestibility of Feeds, — Comparison of Hen with 



Ruminants. 



