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7 
7O STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
amount of experimenting with animals by experiment stations 
and otherwise, in this country and in Europe, has been to 
give us tolerably clear ideas of the proportions of building 
material and fuel best adapted to the wants of farm animals of 
different kinds. 
The principles thus brought out by scientific investigations 
have been constantly put to the test of practical experiment on 
many farms and in many stables. Here, as in the field experi- - 
ments, the results have been most encouraging. This union of 
science and practice, this development of theory by the investi- 
gator and testing by the feeder and the dairyman, has thrown 
a great deal of light upon things which, a few years ago, were 
doubtful or unknown. ‘The Storrs Station has shared in this 
movement. It has made chemical investigations in the labora- 
tory and feeding experiments with cows and sheep in the field 
and stable. It has joined forces with intelligent and progres- 
sive farmers and dairymen in different parts of the State, and a 
considerable number of actual tests have thus been made. 
The digestion experiments of this as of other experiment sta- 
tions are made by taking animals of different kinds, giving 
them certain amounts of different food materials and noting 
the results. The food materials are weighed and chemically 
analyzed, and the same is done with the products given off 
from the body of the animal. A comparison of the weight and 
composition of the food and of the solid excrement, which lat- 
ter contains the undigested residue of the food, shows how 
much of the food and of each of its ingredients is actually 
digested and used by the animal. Such digestion experiments 
show the proportion of protein, fats, and carbohydrates actually 
digested in green fodder, hay, grain, and the like. The Sta- 
tion has made a large number of analyses of the commercial 
feeding stuffs and has tested the digestibility of some of them 
by digestion experiments with sheep. The information thus 
obtained, added to that from other sources, is gradually show- 
ing us the chemical composition and nutritive value of our 
more common feeding stuffs. 
The Station has also made a considerable number of experi- 
ments with milch cows, feeding them different materials and 
noting the amount and quality of the milk produced.* In 

* Reports of Storrs Experiment Station, 1893-1897. 
