FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 335 



necessary to infer from the results obtained with other 

 animals what would take place with ruminants. 



Henneberg also quotes results 1 obtained with cows by Expert- 

 Voit at Munich, by G. Kiihn and Fleischer at Mockern, and ments with 

 by Fleischer at Hohenheim. Voit's results, obtained in 1867, 

 snowed a deficit of nitrogen in the milk, faeces, and urine, 

 representing 1.2 per cent of that in the food. In eight ex- 

 periments made at Mockern in 1867-68 with cows, six 

 showed respectively losses corresponding to 2.9, 11.1, 3.8, 5.6, Losses and 

 16.4, and 7.0 per cent of the nitrogen in the food: and the wins of 



. ii- T mitogen. 



other two showed gams corresponding to 1.2 and 4.8 per 



cent. In the case of the larger losses more nitrogen was 



consumed in the food, and the animals gained in weight, 



and presumably stored-up nitrogen. At Hohenheim, in 1870, 



experiments were made by Fleischer with two cows, one of 



which showed a loss of 0.3, and the other a gain of 0.6 per 



cent of nitrogen compared with that in the food. 



Experiments were also made with sheep by Maercker and 

 E. Schulze, at Weende, 2 which confirmed the conclusions 

 drawn from those with oxen and cows as above, as also did 

 others made by Stohmann with goats 3 at the Halle experi- 

 mental station. 



We will conclude the citation of experimental evidence on Trials 

 the point, by reference to some of the results obtained by wlthd ogs. 

 Voit from 1859 to 1863 with dogs. 4 In none of these cases 

 was the period of exact experiment less than 6 days, whilst 

 in some it was 12, 14, 20, 23, 49, and even 58 days. In eight 

 out of the eleven cases there was an excess of nitrogen in the 

 excrements compared with that in the food, representing the 

 following percentages of gain on that in the food, 1.0, 0.7, 0.4, Gains and 

 0.4, 0.6, 0.3, 0.1, and 0.1 ; whilst the deficits represented 1.4 JXJ$L 

 and 0.3 per cent, and one experiment showed neither gain 

 nor loss. 



Since the publication of the various results above quoted, Practically 

 there has been little doubt entertained that, not only in the n° itr ° S g e f 

 case of carnivora and omnivora, but also in that of herbivora, 

 and even of ruminants, practically the whole of the nitrogen 

 of the food w r hich does not contribute to animal increase or 

 to milk, reappears in the excrements. 



In our estimates of the value of the manure from the con- Mamtriai 

 sumption of different foods by animals on the farm, so far as ''J^i™ °^ 

 the nitrogen was concerned, we many years ago deducted 



1 Ncue Beitrage, Heft I. p. 383, 1872. 



- Jcntrn. f. Landw., 1870 and 1871 ; Armsby, Manual of Cattle-feeding, 

 3rded., 1877, pp. 99, 100. 



3 Zeits.f Biol., 1870, p. 204 ; Armsby, loc. cit., pp. 100, 101. 



4 Bischoff and Voit, Die Gesetze der Ernahrung des Fleischfressers, 1860 ; 

 and Wolffs Die Ernahrung d. landw. Nutzthiere, 1876. 



