MANUAL OF OATTLB-FEEDING. 351 



Some interesting experiments liave recently been made 

 1)3^ Wolff, "^ to determine tlio nutritive value of the protein 

 of flcbli meal as compared witli vegetable protein. The 

 experiments were made on swine. The vegetable protein 

 was furnished in the form of peas, to which a small amount 

 of oil was added ; to the flesh meal enough pure starch 

 was added to give the mixture nearly the composition of 

 the peas. In each case four kilogranmies of potatoes per 

 day and head were fed. The experiments continued 182 

 days ; their results, while not entirely decisive, showed that 

 practically the same gain of live-weight was produced by 

 the one ration as by the other imder like conditions, and 

 thus indicated that animal and vegetable protein have an 

 equal nutritive value. 



All these trials are very interesting as showing that the 

 animal organism is indifferent to the source of the protein 

 w^hich it receives, and that the difference between the 

 herbivora and carnivora is not that the one can eat only 

 vegetable and the other only animal food, but that the 

 digestive apparatus of the former is adapted to large 

 masses of fodder, while the comparatively short alimentary 

 canal of the latter requires a vei-y concentrated food. The 

 herbivora are capable of digesting and utilizing animal 

 protein, if it is mixed with a suitable amount of coarse 

 fodder, and, on the other hand, it is a well known fact 

 that the dog and cat, both earnivorus animals, can subsist 

 on the more concentrated forms of vegetable food. 



Fish Guano or Fish Scrap. — The residue from the 

 preparation of oil from various kinds of fish, which is ex- 

 tensively used as a fertilizer imder the name of fish guano 

 or fibh scrap, has also been tested as a feeding-stuff', with 



^Landw. Jalirbuclicr, VIII., I, Supplement, 2S3. 



