That is to say, this pith possibly exerts a deleterious 

 effect in two important ways, namely: 



It swells enormously when moistened. On account of 

 this fact, pure cellulose manufactured from this pith is used 

 for 1 the packing of war vessels, so that if the sides of the 

 ship are punctured, the water as it flows into the vessel will 

 moisten the layers of cellulose in the walls and this cellulose 

 swells so rapidly and enormously as to close the opening 

 and prevent the vessel from leaking further. The tendency 

 among animals in consuming coarse fodders of this sort is 

 to drink frequently and to drink immediately after eating. 

 When they have, therefore, eaten even a small quantity of 

 this cellulose, as they must when consuming shredded stover, 

 and have taken a drink, the material swells to such an ex- 

 tent as to fill the paunch and the animal has no desire to 

 eat more. 



This is clearly brought out in our trials, for it will be 

 noted that in the first trial the steers ate 22.50 pounds of whole 

 stover per' 1000 pounds of live weight and only 19.41 pounds of 

 shredded stover. In the dry matter consumed in this case, 

 however, there was practically no difference. In the second 

 trial, when the difference in the effect of the two rations 

 was much more marked than in the first, the whole stover 

 steers ate daily per thousand pounds of live weight 28.30 

 pounds, as compared with 22.13 pounds for the shredded 

 stover lot. In dry matter, the whole stover steers ate daily 

 22.64 pounds, as against 18.46 for the shredded stover lot, 

 or 22.6 per cent more. This alone perhaps would be suf- 

 ficient to account for the whole stover steers making a gain 

 of 14 pounds each, while the shredded stover lot lost 8 

 pounds. 



In another important way this pith may exert a 

 deleterious effect. A certain amount of energy is required 

 for the mastication, digestion and assimilation of any food 

 stuff. In general, the concentrated food stuffs such as 

 grains are much more easily masticated and digested than 

 are the coarse feeds like hay, fodders, straws, etc. In fact, 

 in the case of some of the poorer coarse fodders there is left 

 almost no net available energy. That is, the small amount 

 of energy supplied by the food may be entirely used up in 



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