352 



FEEDING WITH SUGAR BEETS, SUGAR, ETC. 



nitrogen-free extract that has remained undigested has a composition very like 

 lignin (55 to 56 per cent, carbon) and is of secondary importance. 



It is interesting to call attention to Weende's experiments upon sheep and 

 oxen in which it is demonstrated that what is known as water extract, or total 

 solid matter that may be extracted from a fodder by boiling water, gives us an 

 excellent idea of the percentage of nitrogen-free extract that may be digested. 



Stohmann's experiments in this same direction gave the following results : 



DIGESTIBILITY OF NITROGEN-FREE EXTRACT AS DETERMINED BY WATER 



EXTRACTION. 



Even in this case important variations are noticeable. This method has 

 never received a general application for the reason that no known proportion 

 exists between the digested portion of the nitrogen-free extract of a fodder and 

 the substances of a fodder soluble in water, the latter containing not only non- 

 nitrogenous substances, but also albumin and ash. This method has, how- 

 ever, a certain practical utility, as the digestibility of coarse and green fodders 

 is in direct ratio to the percentage of solid matter that may be extracted by 

 boiling water. 



Digestibility of phosphoric acid. In some special cases, the addition of a lime 

 phosphate to a fodder may render excellent services; it may be essential to 

 secure a complete nutritive effect, notwithstanding the fact that the digesti- 

 bility of the fodder considered as a whole has undergone very little change. In 

 case of young cattle this is especially important in certain districts where 

 soils are deficient in phosphoric acid, as the crops also suffer in this direc- 

 tion and a lime phosphate should be added to rations of full-grown animals. 

 Many experiments prove that the calcic phosphate is assimilated in the intes- 

 tinal canal and supplies the deficiency when needed. When coarse fodders 

 are fed alone, very little phosphoric acid is found in the urine. When feed- 

 ing milch cows the phosphoric acid is especially important; in this, as in other 

 cases if more is fed than is needed, the excess is thrown out in the excrement. 

 An interesting fact relating to this question is that the urine of carnivora and 

 herbivora is identical when they are fed on milk or when starved and compelled 

 to live on their own substance. This fact shows almost beyond cavil that when 



