48 
N. C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
15. ACTUAL VS. CALCULATED NUTRITIVE RATIOS OF 
RATIONS. 
. s ' 
In the digestion of the preceding rations of cotton-seed meal and 
corn silage and cotton-seed meal and cotton-seed hulls, the protein 
actually digested is below (only slightly so on an average in the 
rations of meal and silage, but more markedly so in the wider ratio 
rations of meal and hulls) the amounts calculated for the single 
foods, whereas the nitrogen-free extract actually digested from the 
rations is in all cases much greater, and the crude fiber, as a general 
rule, is larger than the amounts calculated for the single foods. 
Both these factors of decreased digestibility ot protein and increased 
digestibility of carbohydrates tend to widen the nutritive ratio, and 
make it apparent that the nutritive ratio of rations calculated Irom 
the coefficients of digestibility of their constituent foods may be, 
and are, in the rations under consideration, quite different from the 
ratios obtained by actual digestion of the rations. 
In the table following are brought together the nutritive ratios of 
the rations determined by actual digestions of them and the nutri¬ 
tive ratios of the same rations calculated from the coefficients of 
digestibility of their constituent foods. 
Animals. 
Ration. 
No. Deter¬ 
minations 
Nutritive Ratio 
by 
Actual Digestion 
Nutritive Ratio 
Calculated from 
Single Foods. 
Goats- 
Cotton-seed meal and 
corn silage, 1 to 12 — 
2 
1: 6.29 
1: 5.57 
Steers.- - 
Cotton-seed meal and 
corn silage, 1 to 8 ... 
2 
1: 4.98 
1:4.01 
Heifer.- 
Cotton-seed meal and 
cot.-seed hulls, 1 to7_ 
1 
►—l 
O 
00 
1: 6.93 
Steers _ 
Cotton-seed meal and 
cot.-seed hulls, 1 to 6. 
2 
1: 9.71 
1: 7.69 
Steers _ 
Cotton-seed meal and 
cot.-seed hulls, 1 to 4. 
2 
1: 7.52 
t 
1: 5.62 
16. COMPARATIVE DIGESTIVE POWER 
Of Sheep and Goats, and Cows and Goats for the Same Foods. 
Few or no digestion experiments with goats have been made in 
this country. Their digestive power for the various fodders, judging 
from European investigations, is practically the same as that of 
sheep and oxen. The digestions of corn fodder, crimson clover hay, 
and cowpea-vine hay by one goat and one sheep on each, furnish 
data for comparing the digestive powers of sheep and goats for these 
three fodders, while the digestions of cotton-seed hulls by two goats 
and two heifers furnish data for making like comparisons for goats 
