FEEDING HORSES. 373 



great care In their execution ; they throw much light upon 

 the comparative economy of digestion in the horse and sheep, 

 or between the ruminating and non-ruminating animals. 

 Dr. Armsby translates the conclusions arrived at by Wolff, 

 as follows ; 



1. Meadow hay is less fully digested by the horse than 

 the sheep, the difference amounting to 11 or 12 per cent, of 

 the dry substance. 



2. The crude albuminoids of the hay is nearly as digest- 

 ible by the horse as by sheep. In the better qualities of 

 hay experimented upon, the difference amounted to from 

 4 to 6 per cent, of the total amount ; while, in some of the 

 poorer sorts, more was digested by the horse than by the 

 sheep. 



3. Of the non-nitrogenous constituents of hay, the 

 nitrogen-free extract is slightly, and the crude fibre consid- 

 erably better digested by the sheep than by the horse. As 

 a result, the nutritive ratio of the portion of the hay 

 digested is narrower in the case of the horse than in that of 

 sheep. As regards fat, all the experiments gave very low 

 results for this nutrient, owing to the presence of a consid- 

 erable quantity of biliary products, etc., in the excrements. 



4. In two kinds of lucerne hay the nitrogenous and 

 nitrogen-free extract were equally well digested by the 

 horse and by sheep, while the crude fibre appeared to be 

 relatively better digested than that of meadow hay. 



5. The digestibility of winter wheat straw was found to 

 depend somewhat on the amount of mastication it received ; 

 but in general to be small. Under ordinary circumstances 

 it seems to be hardly half as well digested by the horse as 

 by ruminants. 



6. Concentrated feeding stuffs (oats, beans and maize, 

 the two latter soaked with water) are digested to the same 

 extent by the horse and by sheep. 



