4 
N. C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
14. Digestible Organic Nutrients in one hundred pounds of dry 
matter of Fodder and Rations. 
15. Actual vs. Calculated Nutritive Ratios of Rations. 
16. Comparative Digestive Power of Sheep and Goats, and Cows 
and Goats for the same Foods. 
17. The Nitrogen-free Extract of Foods. 
18. Summary of Coefficients of Digestibility. 
19. Conclusions. 
Discussion. 
The Animals Employed .—In digestion experiments with large ani¬ 
mals it is necessary to keep attendants with the animals during the 
time collections are being made, while with smaller animals this 
may be avoided by collecting the excrement in rubber-lined bags, 
which are attached to the animals by means of a simple harness. 
Sheep are more commonly’used for this work, as at the Maine and 
Wisconsin Stations. Their wool aids in retaining the harness, and 
they usually take kindly to the necessary handling. The sheep of 
our section, however, are rather scrawny and wild, and have pined 
away in previously conducted experiments, hence we have thought it 
advisable to replace the sheep by the goat, as being better suited to 
bear confinement and handling, while the results should be in har¬ 
mony with those from sheep, and just as applicable in the calcula¬ 
tion of rations for neat cattle. The comparisons made between 
digestion of the same articles by both sheep and goats in the follow- 
ing pages support this view, while we have the opinions of some of 
the leading authorities to the effect that coefficients of digestibility 
obtained with the goat may be used with confidence for the calcu- 
lation of rations for the other domestic ruminants, the cow and 
sheep. 
The two sheep used in these experiments were obtained from a 
butcher’s flock, and were rather thin in flesh but appeared to be 
healthy. They proved to be infested with lice, which gave some 
trouble by weakening the sheep and spreading to the goats. 
One of the two goats was fat and the other in good store condition 
when received, and both had been accustomed to harness. The only 
difficulty with them was to keep the harness in place, which required 
rather more straps, and to be closer drawn than for the sheep. 
Other animals used were a brindled heifer, called “Brindle,” two 
years old, grown on the place, of the common native stock; two 
steers, “ Lineback ” and “ Yellow,” from Southwestern Virginia, the 
former evidently graded with Short-horn, while the latter had the 
appearance of being a native. 
The Spotted Heifer and steers numbered 1, 2 and 3, were from 
Chatham County native cows, graded up with Jersey sires. Steers 
numbered 2 and 3 had a full Jersey sire. All the steers were fatten¬ 
ing and were sold for beef. 
In all cases but one the animals were fed all they would eat for at 
least eight days before collections were begun, and where any change 
