BULLETIN No. 184 



DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS WITH POULTRY. 

 J. M. Bartlett. 



The digestibility of American feeding stuffs has been quite 

 extensively studied in this country with ruminants, horses and 

 hogs but as yet only a few experiments have been made with 

 poultry. It is obvious that such studies are desirable on account 

 of their practical importance and the growing demand for infor- 

 mation in regard to the care and management of fowls which 

 has come with the great increase in the poultry industry in 

 recent years. 



A few years ago the great bulk of the eggs and poultry which 

 supplied our markets was produced by farmers, who let their 

 hens run at large" for the greater part of the year, picking up 

 their living in the fields and pastures, supplimented perhaps by 

 a feed of corn at night. But today when great plants are estab- 

 lished, carrying thousands of birds, only the most careful and 

 scientific methods of handling and feeding will make the busi- 

 ness profitable. Several of the Experiment Stations have con- 

 sidered questions of poultry nutrition and much valuable infor- 

 mation has been gained through feeding experiments for 

 growth, egg production, etc., but the absence of definite stand- 

 ards and coei^cients of digestibility of different foods for this 

 class of animal has been a serious drawback to the best work. 

 The abundant data available for other classes of farm animals 

 might possibly be used to good advantage with poultry but the 

 structure of the alimentary canal of birds is quite different from 

 that of herbiverous animals, consequently the digestive capacity 

 mav be different. 



