FEEDING EXPERIMENT WITH SHEEP. ae 
_ eaten, and the total and digestible nutrients in the turnips eaten 
have been added to those of the grain and hay actually eaten. 
This sum gives the total eaten in the eighty-four days that the 
experiment lasted. Dividing the totals by eighty-four gives the 
averages per day. 
The uneaten residues consisted of the coarser and less digest- 
ible portions of the hay, together with some grain. ‘The grain 
would be more digestible than the hay, but the rejected por- 
tions of the hay were much less digestible than the whole hay, 
consequently it was thought that it would not be far from the 
truth to assume the same digestion co-efficients for the uneaten 
residues as for the hay used in the experiments. 
Of course the estimates of amounts of digestible nutrients, 
which are based upon averages of experiments elsewhere, are 
merely estimates and must be taken for what they are worth. 
In experiments now being made (winter of 1893-4) the digesti- 
bility of the feeding stuffs is being tested by direct experiments 
with sheep. ; 
Since the digestion co-efficients are estimated rather than 
actually determined, the error introduced in estimating the di- 
gestibility of the uneaten residues is less significant. 
Table 7, on page 36, summarizes the total and digestible nutri- 
ents eaten by the sheep in this experiment. Wolff’s (German) stand- 
ard for fattening sheep calls fora ration, per 100 pounds live weight, 
of .30 pounds of digestible protein and sufficient digestible fat 
and carbohydrates to make the total energy (fuel value) equal to 
3,520 Calories, with a nutritive ratio of 1 to 5.5. The average of 
II experiments with 122 animals, conducted in experiment stations 
in five states in the United States, gives a ration, per too pounds 
of live weight, of .27 of a pound of digestible protein with suffi- 
cient digestible fat and carbohydrates to furnish 3,560 calories of 
energy with a nutritive ratio of 1 to 6.1. The total energy (fuel 
value) of each of the rations in the experiments here reported 
upon differs but little from either of the above. In the case of 
the wide ration the protein is considerably below the standard 
and the narrow ration is very much above the average as found 
in other sheep feeding experiments. It will be noticed that the 
narrow ration is narrower than the average of the American 
rations above cited, and that in the case of the wide ration, it is a 
good deal wider. 
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