Digestive Coefficients of Poultry Feeds, etc. 
9 
space of time. The reaction was constipation followed by looseness of the 
bowels as with the gentian trials. At the end of 72 hours no trace of the 
methylene blue could be detected. 
Test No. 19: Buff Plymouth Rock hen, leg band No. 32, weight 5.7 pounds. 
8:30 a. m. fed 30 gms. corn meal mixed with methylene blue water. 
11.40 a. m. first excreta were passed. Excreta blue. 
8:30 fourth day, after 72 hours excreta normal. 
The first indication was at three hours and ten minutes. There was again evidence 
of irritation. The hen was in laying condition, having laid two eggs during the trials. 
Test No. 20: Buff Plymouth Rock hen, leg band No. 34, weight 6.1 pounds. 
8:30 a. m. fed 31 gms. corn meal mixed with methylene blue water. 
12:00 m. first excreta passed. Excreta blue. 
8:30 a. m. fourth day, after 72 hours excreta normal. 
Indicator showed food passed entire digestive tract in three hours and thirty 
minutes. Hen was in laying condition. Methylene blue caused irritation. 
Test No. 21: Buff Plymouth Rock hen, leg band No. 36, weight 6.3 pounds. 
7 a. m. fed 7 cc. methylene blue water mixed with corn meal. 
7:30 a. m. second day, first evacuation. Excreta blue. 
7:30 a. m. third day, after 48 hours all blue had disappeared. 
This bird was not in laying condition. The first effect was that of constipation, 
the first evacuation being twenty-three hours after the test meal was given 
Test No. 22: White Plymouth Rock hen, ’eg band No. 115, weight 6.5 pounds. 
7 a. m. fed 20 gms. corn meal mixed with lampb’ack. 
10:20 a. m. first excreta voided. Excreta black. 
7 a. m. fourth day, after 72 hours excreta normal. 
This hen was in laying condition, laying an egg on each of the three days of the test. 
The food, as indicated by the lampblack, passed the entire length of the digestive 
tract in three hours and twenty minutes. The hen was in laying condition. 
Test No. 23: White Plymouth Rock hen, leg band No. 56, weight 5.8 pounds. 
7 a. m. fed 20 gms. corn meal in which was incorporated lampblack. 
12:20 p. m. first excreta were voided. Excreta black. 
7 a. m. fourth day, after 72 hours excreta normal. 
The first colored excreta were passed in five hours and twenty minutes. The hen 
was in laying condition laying each day during the test. 
Test No. 24: White Plymouth Rock hen, leg band No. 100, weight 6.3 pounds. 
7 a. m. fed 20 gms. corn meal mixed with lampblack. 
2 p. m. first excreta passed. Excreta black. 
7 a. m. fourth day, excreta normal. 
The first excreta were voided in seven hours. This hen was broody. Broody hens 
apparently do not have as many evacuations as other hens and the quantity evacua¬ 
ted is greater as indicated by this hen. 
Test No. 25: Partridge Plymouth Rock hen, leg band No 112, weight 5.3 pounds. 
7 a. m. fed 20 gms. corn meal in which was incorporated lampblack. 
1:20 p. m. first excreta voided. Excreta black. 
7 a. m. fourth day, after 72 hours excreta normal. 
The first excreta indicating lampblack was voided in six hours and twenty minutes. 
DISCUSSION 
Of the two White Plymouth Rock hens not in laying condition one passed wheat 
middlings in six hours and the other in ten hours or an average of eight hours. 
In the test with one Single Comb White Leghorn in laying condition the wheat 
