FOOD NUTRIENTS 47 
6. Coefficient of digestibility—Composition includes 
both the digested and unabsorbed materials. But the ab- 
sorbed matter only is of importance as food. Digestion 
trials make known the percentage of each nutrient 
digested. Such figures express the digestion coefficient 
for each constituent. In the table following are given 
the coefficients of digestibility for the constituents of the 
feeding stuff previously mentioned. 
DicEsTION CoEFFICIENTS OF SOME CoMMON FEEDING STUFFS 
Percentage digestible 
Feeding stuffs j Crude |Nitrogen 
Protein FF free Fat 
iber 
extract 
Corn stover ~-_--_-.-_____ 45 67 61 62 
Red clover hay---__------- 55 46 64 53 
Timothy hay —___-.-_-___ 48 52 63 60 
Cottonseed hulls --_.--___- 6 47 34 79 
\ CG) 0 eee eee 76 58 93 86 
Wheat bran _-__--_-_--__- 77 41 7 63 
Cottonseed meal __---_--_- 83 35 78 94 
Gluten feed ~______._____- 85 76 89 82 
7. Digestible nutrients—When composition and diges- 
tible percentage are known, it is a comparatively simple 
matter to determine the digestible quantity of each con- 
stituent. This is done by multiplying the figures repre- 
senting the total amount of each constituent by the coeffi- 
cien of digestibility, the resulting product being the quan- 
tity digested. 
For example: Corn stover contains 3.8 pounds of protein, 19.7 
pounds of crude fiber, 31.5 pounds of nitrogen-free extract and 11 
pounds of fat. By multiplying these amounts by the figures repre- 
senting the digestibility for each constituent respectively, the amount 
of each digestible nutrient will be obtained. This is done as follows: 
