DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS WITH SOME COLORADO 
HAYS AND FODDERS. 
BY WM. P. HEADDEN. 
Some years ago, while making a study of the alfalfa plant 
and again on extending the work to a study of alfalfa and some 
other hays, I was surprised at the scarcity of data upon the diges¬ 
tibility of the various hays that I was endeavoring to study. 
The results of the experiments that I succeeded in finding were 
not only few in number but not concordant. Further, they were 
made with hays which could scarcely be compared with those that 
I was studying and under different conditions from those which 
obtain here. 
It is accepted as a fact among us, whether justly so or not, that 
alfalfa or lucerne hay as grown and made in this state is scarcely 
excelled by any other hay for the purposes of milk-producing and 
fattening, for which it is used in large quantities. It is also prob¬ 
ably true that the alfalfa grows as well under our conditions and 
makes as good a quality of hay as in any other locality in this 
country and perhaps in the world. It is for such reasons that it 
seemed to me desirable to make some experiments to determine 
anew the digestion coefficients of alfalfa hay produced here. It is 
true that these had been previously determined by my immediate 
predecessor, Dr. O’Brine, using steers to experiment with, but 
I wished to extend the experiments to include some other fodders. 
I deemed it desirable that still others should be added, because the 
accumulated data on this subject is neither extensive nor concord¬ 
ant. I therefore present the results of some experiments on 
the digestibility of some Colorado grown fodders, using sheep as 
our experimental animals.* 
In Bulletin No. 39 , I tried to set forth some of the differences 
between hays made from leguminous plants and the grasses. I • 
have this problem in view in these experiments also, but rather 
incidentally, the principal purpose of this bulletin being to give 
the results of our attempts to determine the digestion coefficients 
*1 wish to acknowledge the patient, faithful, cheerful, and interested ser¬ 
vice rendered by my assistants in the prosecution of this work. Some of my 
results being unusually low led to frequent repetitions as a matter of precau¬ 
tion. Some of the work too has been disagreeable, but my assistants have at all 
times done it willingly. It is with pleasure that I make this acknowledgment. 
