ALFALFA—ITS GROWTH, DIGESTIBILITY, ETC. 
21 
A few words might be said as to the chemical changes 
that take place in the digestive tract of the animal. 
The digestion takes place in the alimentary canal, 
consisting of the month, gullet, stomach, small and large 
intestines. The mouth secretes saliva and a ferment 
known as ptyalin, which changes the starch to some form 
of sugar. The stomach of ruminants consists of four 
compartments; the partially chewed mass passes into the 
largest division, called the paunch, and partly into the 
second stomach, or recticulum ; here the food remains for 
a time, acted upon by the fluids of the stomach ; the dis¬ 
solved portion passes through the other divisions of the 
stomach; when swallowed the second time, it goes into the 
first and second stomach, and into the third stomach, 
omasum, or manifolds. From the third stomach it passes 
to the fourth stomach, abomasum, or rennet, there to 
undergo the ordinary process of digestion. The gastric 
juice and pepsin change the albuminoids into a soluble 
form called peptones, and the mass into chyme, which can 
be absorbed more or less into the circulation. We have 
traced it into the intestines, which in the ox is nearly 20 
times as long as the body. The chief digestive fluids are 
the bile, which acts upon the fat; and the pancreatic juice, 
which has three ferments—diastase, which converts the 
starch into sugar; trypsin, which acts upon the albumin¬ 
oids, and a ferment which separates fats into glycerin and 
fatty acids. By the action of these various digestive 
fluids, the chyme is converted into chyle, or, in plainer 
language, the process of digestion is essentially a process 
of solution, the soluble portion being assimilated by the 
animal, and the waste portion excreted as dung. It is 
rarely possible to have a complete digestion of all the nu¬ 
trients of the food, portions nearly always escaping diges¬ 
tion, especially when a rich food is given, or when we 
strive for large or rapid production of organic substances, 
such as milk. This has given rise to the old adage, “the 
