Colorado Hays and Fodders. 
19 
care. The results are so constant that they preclude any mistake 
in the analytical work. To convey an idea of the care with which 
my assistants worked and the concordant results obtained, I may 
be permitted to give some of them: Ether extract in alfalfa hay, 
0.783, 0.835, 0.785, 0.812 and 0.750, after resampling and pro¬ 
longed drying in hydrogen. Ether extract in the only sample of 
orts left by the sheep was 0.827, 0.850. The results obtained in 
the analysis of the feces were equally satisfactory. 
The only suggestion remaining is that the hay used in this 
experiment had suffered some change which affect the solubility 
of the “ether extract” in this remarkable manner, i. e., reducing 
it to about one-half the amount to be expected in good alfalfa 
hay, this hay showing 0.80 per cent, while the next sample experi¬ 
mented with contained 1.62 per cent and was likewise first cutting 
but in much better condition. The orts show the same relation; the 
orts in this series show an average of 0.83 per cent ether extract, 
in the next one to be given 1.22 per cent. Of the three sheep 
used only one left any portion of its fodder, and I am inclined to 
consider it an accident that the fat in the hay and orts in this one 
sample are so nearly the same. The feces, on the other hand, 
do not show this difference, but are very similar in the percentage 
of ether extract yielded. 
As already stated, the feces from this hay containing only 
0.80 per cent ether extract yielded as the average of fifteen deter¬ 
minations made on the feces of three sheep 3.10 per cent, while 
the feces from another alfalfa hay yielded as the average of the 
same number of determinations made on the feces of three other 
sheep 3.09 per cent. One thing is evident, i. e., that however 
changed the hay may have been, this change did not affect the 
amount of ether extract appearing in the feces. 
There are no facts that I know of to justify us in assuming 
that oxidation would diminish the solubility of the fats in alfalfa 
hay, even if slightly damaged by rain or dew, as this may have 
been. Beyond this I cannot conceive by what cause the fat in 
this hay could have been so reduced, and I am still less able to 
apprehend what changes could have taken place within the ani¬ 
mal to restore an apparently normal amount of ether extract to the 
feces. 
It is almost certain that the ether extract consists of soluble 
fecal matter, the amount of which is not dependent upon the 
amount of ether extract in the hay, and the coefficient obtained is 
of but little value. 
It is generally accepted as a fact that the determination of 
the coefficient of digestion of fat, especially when only small 
amounts are fed, is at best unsatisfactory. This is applicable in 
the case of hays and fodders in which the amount of fat or ether 
