AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. -17 



in Professor Jordan's reports. The animals experimented upon 



were sheep in each case Summarizing the results of the 



preceding experiments, we have the following oversight of the 

 twenty materials studied : 



Per cent di pen 

 tosana digested. 



LXXXVI Phleum pratense, early bloom 60.4 



LXXXVII Phleum pratense, late cut 62.8 



CXIX Phleum pratense, early bloom 54 6 



CXX Phleum pratense, late cut 48.2 



CXL Timothy hay (chiefly Phleum pratense) 48.0 



CXLI Timothy hay (chiefly Phleum pratense 49.5 



LXXXVIII Danthonia spicata 68.6 



LXXXIX Agrostis vulgaris , ... 70.0 



XCVI Calamagrostis Canadensis 90.4 



XCVII Triticum repens 59.9 



CXXVIII Hungarian grass 68.2 



XC Trifolium hybridum 56.8 



CXXV Fodder of field corn . . 76.6 



LXXXIIl Fodder of Southern field corn 69.6 



Timothy hay, CXL, and sugar beets 71.3 



Timothy hay, CXL, rutabagas .....: 57.1 



Timothy hay, CXLI. and wheat bran 45 6 



Timothy hay, CXLI, gluten meal 59.1 



Hay of Agrostis vulgaris, LXXXIX, and wheat bran, 54 1 



Hay of Agrostis vulgaris, LXXXIX, wheat middlings, 64.9 



The average of these various results, excluding the data for 

 Calamagrostis Canadensis, which evidently present something 

 anomalous, shows 58.2 per cent of pentosans to have been digested 

 and 41.8 per cent undigested. 



These results are worthy of consideration. Twenty of the best 

 known food stuffs for cattle are here shown to contain a minimum 

 of from 6-16 per cent of their dry weight in pentosans, of which an 

 average of only 58.2 per cent is found to be digestible. It appears 

 then, that while these bodies are to be for the present classified 

 among the carbohydrates, they are really much less digestible, and 

 hence of less food value, than the better known members of this 

 group, such as starch, sugar, etc. In many cases the indicated 

 digestibility is even less than that assigned to the fibre of the same 



