DIGESTION OF THE FOOD 33 



carried out upon various breeds of sheep have 

 proved this. The experiment was performed with 

 five different rations, and the coefficients of 

 digestibility were found in no case to exceed 

 a maximum difference of 3-4%. This might 

 quite well be due to individual peculiarities of the 

 animal, combined with unavoidable experimental 

 errors. 



3. Between individual members of the same breed, 

 small variations, usually traceable to some slight 

 physical weakness on the part of the animal, may 

 occasionally be noticed. Generally faulty teeth, 

 too rapid eating, nervousness, disturbances of the 

 digestive organs, sometimes also intestinal worms, 

 are the causes. Defects of this kind may usually 

 be detected by the condition of the faeces, for in 

 animals with weak digestion these are often moister 

 than is the case with those digesting the same foods 

 in the normal way. Where the differences are not 

 due to serious disease of the stomach or intestine 

 the percentage error seldom exceeds 3-4% of the 

 ingested organic matter. 



4. The age of the animal does not influence the 

 digestibility of the food, but until the first stomach 

 of the ruminant is fully developed, the coarse, 

 harder particles of the food will not be as well 

 digested as at a later period. Growing sheep, 

 which were given the same food from the age of 

 six to fourteen months, were found to digest what 



D 



