IO STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
from the beginning of its career, that the fodder which many, 
if not the most, of the farmers of Connecticut are in the habit 
of feeding to their cows is ill-balanced in its nutritive ingredi- 
ents, and that more nitrogen in feeding stuffs is one of the 
essentials for the uplifting of our agriculture. 
Another most important benefit which accrues from these 
experiments in the stable, like those with fertilizers and forage 
crops in the field, is in their educational influence. The man 
who makes a successful and instructive experiment in his field, 
barn, or dairy, not only learns something for himself, and does 
so in a better way than would otherwise be possible, but he 
also has something to communicate to his neighbors and to the 
public at large. Furthermore, such information has an espe- 
cial value to other farmers; being the fruit of the actual 
experience of one of their fellow-workers, it has a meaning for 
them which it would not have if it came only from the Station. 
At the same time the Station experimenters reap a benefit from 
the direct work with the farmer, in that they learn better what 
are his wants and how to meet them. ‘This co-operation 
between the Station and the practical farmer is a means of 
making direct practical application of the results of scientific 
research ; it brings new information, and it is one of the most 
effective means for the dissemination of knowledge. Thus, in 
a three-fold way, it benefits the public which the Station is 
‘endeavoring to serve. 
The digestion experiments with sheep are similar to those 
previously reported. Their object is to learn what proportions 
of the nutritive ingredients of different feeding stuffs are 
actually digestible. As the results of such experimenting in 
Europe and in this country accumulate it becomes more and 
more probable that the different ruminants, as cows, oxen, 
sheep, and goats, digest very nearly the same amounts of pro- 
tein, carbohydrates, and other nutritive ingredients from the 
saine kinds of feeding stuffs. Hence the experiments on the * 
digestion of different materials by sheep may be taken as an 
approximate measure of the digestibility of the same materials 
by milch cows. The greater convenience of handling sheep in 
such experiments is the reason for using them instead of cows 
for testing the digestibility of some of the feeding stuffs of 
importance in the State. The experiments of the sage year 
have been with green fodders and hays. 
