- 14 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. 
The reader should bear in mind the limitations in connection 
with the report of this experiment, namely, the amount of 
feed reported as consumed daily in Table 5 is the average for 
the entire feeding periods. The amount of digestible nutrients 
reported as consumed daily is based upon calculations from 
digestion coefficients secured during one week only of each 
feeding period. Admitting that the live weight of each animal 
was sustained in each trial, it may be questioned whether the 
animals did not gain or lose in flesh in the same periods by the 
substitution of fat for water in the carcass or the reverse. The 
animals on the corn meal diet were more or less irregular in 
eating, drinking and the passing of dung. The amount of 
manure passed by Ethel during the week of the digestion trial 
in the first experiment was more than the average, and the 
weight of the feces for the week preceding was used in the 
calculations. The possible error arising from the above condi- 
tions could scarcely account, however, for the marked differ- 
ences in results obtained. On the average for the two animals 
13.15 pounds of hay, containing 7.1 pounds of digestible nutri- 
ents, were required for maintenance. For the same animals 
6% pounds of corn meal, containing 4.5 pounds of digestible 
nutrients, was sufficient. One pound of digestible nutrients in 
corn meal was found to be equivalent to 1.57 pounds in mixed 
hay. Or, stated in another way, there were required for main- 
tenance 57 per cent. more digestible nutrients when derived 
from hay than from corn meal. The explanation of this 
marked difference lies in the fact that a considerable part of the 
value of the food eaten is used in the processes which are 
necessary to prepare the food for the use of the body. First, 
a certain amount of muscular exertion is required to grasp, 
chew and swallow the food, and to move it through the alimen- 
tary tract. Second, losses occur from an escape of unconsumed 
gases, due to fermentation that takes place during digestion. 
Third, more or less energy is used in the convertion of digested 
material into forms suitable to nourish the cells of the body. 
“In all these ways more or less of the energy of the food, as 
