44 PRINCIPLES OF FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



ready described. The course of the food through the stomach 

 of a ruminant is sliown in Figure 8. 



Digestion in the Small Intestine. — As a result of the di- 

 gestion in the stomach, the food materials are reduced to an 



acid, semi-fluid, 

 gray, pulpy 

 mass, known as 

 '' chyme." In 

 the upper part 

 of the small 

 intestine, the 

 chyme is acted 

 upon by three 

 different diges- 

 tive fluids, — the 



Fig. 8. — Stomach of a sheep, showing the course . . . 



of the feed. (U. S. Department of Agriculture.) A, pancreatic JUlCe, 



rumen; B, reticulum; C, omasum; D, abomasum ; +v>„ Kil^-v oi-»rl +V.r 



E, esophagus; F, pylorus. ]^^ ^\^^' ^^^^ ^'^^ 



intestinal juice, 

 Y/hich render it alkaline in reaction, and stop any further 

 action by the pepsin upon the proteins. 



The pancreatic juice is secreted by the pancreas (or sweet- 

 breads), a gland which is located along the upper part of the 

 small intestine. It contains the enzymes trypsin, erepsin, 

 pancreatic amylase or amylopsin, pancreatic lipase or steapsin, 

 and small amounts of maltase. Sucrase or invertin is some- 

 times found, while lactase is present in young animals. 

 They act best in alkaline solution. Trypsin acts upon the 

 proteins which the pepsin has not broken up, and also upon 

 some of the proteoses and peptones formed by the previous 

 action of the pepsin. Trypsin, however, carries the de- 

 composition of the proteins further than does jM^psin. It 



