6b MAIXE STATE COLLEGE 



that a food may be so distasteful to the animal that the nerve 

 stimulus necessary for the proper secretion of the digestive fluids may 

 be wanting, and in such a case the addition to the ration of anything 

 that -would render it more palatable would promote digestibility, but 

 with healthy animals judiciously fed on the ordinary food mixtures, 

 we have no reason to suspect either unpalatableness or an insufficient 

 supply of the digestive juices. 



One difBcully in obtaining conclusive testimony on the point 

 under consideration lies in the limitations of digestion experiments, 

 which with ruminants, at least, do not allow the determination of 

 the digestibility of all foods as fed singly. 



The co-efficients of digestibility of grains with ruminants have 

 been reached by assuming coarse fodders to have the same digesti- 

 bility when fed with them as when fed alone. We du not know 

 how much of the grains would be digested when not accompanied 

 by any other food, nor do we know if hay maintains the same 

 digestibility when grains are combined with it. The way by which 

 we can get at the most reliable figures is to experiment with foods 

 that it is practicable to feed both singly and combined. 



The digestion experiments at this Station in 1894 have been 

 directed toward gaining information on the points under consid- 

 eration. 



The experimental foods have been Timothy hay and silage. If 

 combination does affect digestibility, it would be likely to occur 

 when two such foods as these are mixed. — the one coarse, dry, 

 quite indigestible and not highly palatable, and the other succulent, 

 much more digestible and very much relished by the animals. 



The experiments were conducted with the foods alone and com- 

 bined, using Timothy hay, silage from the large immature Southern 

 corn and silage from mature Flint corn. The following is a sum- 

 mary of the results : 



