

THE DIGESTIBILITY OF FEEDING STUFFS. 157 
Many analyses have been made of nearly all of the materials 
commonly used for food for cattle, and in consequence we have 
a fairly good knowledge of their composition. A good many 
experiments upon the digestibility of the different food materials 
have been made, but these are necessarily much less in number, 
and also less accurate in their carrying out than are mere analyses. 
Considering the short time that the experiment stations have 
been established in this country, quite a large number of digestion 
experiments upon American feeding stuffs have been made, but 
by far the larger number of experiments have been made in 
Europe, and especially in Germany. Just as it has been of great 
practical importance to make large numbers of analyses of Ameri- 
can foods in order that we may know the composition of American 
feeding stuffs, so it is important to have a large number of accu- 
rately conducted digestion experiments upon American feeding 
materials. The results already obtained are in many instances 
more valuable for our conditions than are the results of the much 
larger number of German experiments. 
~The tables (Nos. 49 and 50) which follow give a summary of 
the results of digestion experiments up to the years 1891-2. 
Table 49 is a translation of the summation table prepared by 
Profs. Dietrich and Konig,* and it contains the results of all 
published European digestion experiments obtainable by these 
very careful and painstaking compilers. A few American studies 
are also included. 
Table 50 contains a tentative summary of the results of Ameri- 
can digestion experiments prepared by Professor W. H. Jordan, 
Director of the Maine Experiment Station, for the Office of Ex- 
periment Stations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is 
here printed by the courteous consent of the Office of Experiment 
Stations. 
The tables require little explanation. In table 49 there are 
given the minima and maxima figures as well as the averages 
obtained in the experiments. ‘The first column in each table 
gives the number of animals experimented with, and the second 
column the total number of tests of digestibility of the given 
feeding stuff made with these animals. In the original of table 
49 the results are given to the second decimal place, but they 
are here given to the nearest whole per cent. in each case. 

* Zusammensetzung und Verdaulichkett der Futtermittel. 
