4 
14. C. Agricultural Experiment Station 
Corn showed a higher digestibility than any other grain tested. 
Wheat bran showed a low digestibility. 
A mixture of equal parts fine cut clover and corn meal is more digestible and is 
a more economical feed than bran. 
Corn compares favorably with oats as a grain feed for fowls. The ether extract of 
wheat has a low digestive coefficient. 
Crude fiber is but very little digested and evidently is of but little use in a ration 
for poultry except to give bulkiness. 
The mixing of about seven per cent of bone ash with a ration consisting wholly of 
vegetable matter gave slightly higher average digestive coefficeint than when the 
mixture was fed without it. 
Kalugine 2 in 1897 conducted digestion trials with peas, buckwheat, wheat, and 
barley. “Hens digest the crude protein of peas and barley in about the same pro¬ 
portions as has been observed in experiments with farm animals. The assimilation 
of crude protein of wheat and buckwheat is inferior to that found in the other two 
grains. In their capacity to utilize fat, fowls in some respects resemble swine and in 
other respects herbivora. 
Fields and Ford 3 in 1900 conducted digestion trials with kafir corn, corn, and cow- 
peas. The digestion coefficients of kafir corn and corn are higher when fed whole 
than when ground. The reverse is true of cowpeas. The percent of digested crude 
protein, nitrogen-free-extract, and ether extract is generally higher m kafir corn 
than in cowpeas. . 
Lehmann 4 conducted trials in 1901 with wheat and peas. Fiber was found indi¬ 
gestible. The assimiliation of both crude protein and fat of wheat is much less than 
that of peas. The reverse is true of nitrogen-free-extract. The digestible coefficients 
by poultry are more comparable to those of swine than to those by farm animals. 
Paraschtschuk 5 in 1902 conducted trials with corn for hens and cocks. 1 ‘Digestion 
by poultry does not differ widely from that of other animals. In their ability to digest 
fiber, poultry resembles swine more than they do ruminants or horses. In their ability 
to digest ether extract poultry most closely resembles ruminants. They are lowest 
in order in ability to utilize nitrogen-free-extract.” 
Prior to 1904 digestion trials were reported for about 20 feeds on poultry. Duplicate 
trials were reported for only three feeds. These are corn, peas, and barley . 
Brown 6 in 1904 gives the results of sixteen digestion trials with nine hens and one 
cock extending over a period varying from six to thirteen days. The feeds used were 
corn, oats, wheat, and meat. Crude protein and nitrogen-free-extract are assimilated 
in much greater proportions in corn than in oats. Wheat falls between the two in 
these respects. The digestibility of crude fat of wheat is conspicuously less than of 
corn and oats, which fact may bear relation to the unfavorable results that follow 
sole wheat diet. Chickens eat much more of corn than of oats and the nutritive 
superiority of corn is manifest in an increased body weight of these chickens in the 
corn test in contrast with a decreased body weight of chickens in the oat test. Accord¬ 
ing to the availability of the nutrients, these three grains vary with respect to low 
cost in order of corn, oats, and wheat. 
2 Kalugin, J. Ueber die Wirkung fiene Grandes awf die verdanlich keit der Nohrstoffe der Hirse bei 
Huhnern. Fuhling’s laudwirtsch. Zlg. Leipzip, 46, Heft 3, I Feb. Pp 85-86, 1897. 
3 Fields and Ford, Bui. 46, Okla. Exp. Sta., 1900. 
4 Lehmann, F. Futterungsveruche beitr. Ernahrung von Geflugee. Deutscheland wirtsch. Gresse 
Berlin, 28 J., No. 39, 118, Mar. pp 339-340, 1901. . _ „ 
6 Paraschtschuk, Simon. Die Verdanung des mais hei Huhnern, Journ f. Zandwirt Sch., Berlm50. 
J., Hebt 1, 9 mai, pp 15-32, 1902. _ .. 1Qni 
6 Brown, E. W., Bui. 56, U. S. Dept, of Agri., B. A. I. Digestion Experiments with Poultry, 1904. 
