
DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS WITH SHEEP. 10g 
individual animals of the same species and breed being wider than 
most variations in different species. 
Influence of Age-——The few experiments (principally with 
sheep) tried indicate very little difference, if any, due to age. 
EXPERIMENTS HERE REPORTED. 
From the above it will be seen that differences due to age, 
breed and species of ruminants are slight. The digestibility of a 
feed by a sheep can be taken as a tolerably correct measure of 
‘its digestibility by a cow or steer. As sheep are easier to 
experiment with than are larger animals, and as many of the 
feeding experiments by the Station are with sheep, they have 
been employed in the digestion experiments which are here 
reported upon. ; 
The pens for the animals are similar to those devised by the 
Maine Experiment Station* except that the partitions and sides 
were made of half-inch iron pipe. The pen for each animal is 
about five feet square and has at one side a narrow stall in which 
the sheep is confined during the part of the experiment in which 
the feces are collected. ‘The mangers are arranged so as to 
prevent loss of food by scattering. The rubber-lined bags for 
collecting the feces and the harness used to hold them in place 
are quite similar to those used by the Maine Station. 
Each experiment lasted twelve days. The first seven days 
were given to preliminary feeding, during which the feces were 
not collected and each animal had the run of its pen. At the 
end of the first seven days the sheep were placed in the narrow 
stall and the rubber-lined bags for collecting the feces were 
attached. The whole of the feces was collected during the last 
five days of the experiment, and was removed twice daily from 
the bags and placed in the drying apparatus. Each half day’s 
portion of the feces was dried by itself, put in a glass jar and 
sent to the laboratory for analyses. 
The details of the experiments follow. 
DIGESTION EXPERIMENT NO, I. 
Wheat bran, corn meal and hay. 
Two grade Shropshire wethers of preceding spring. Experi- 
ment began January 11, 1894, and ended January 23, 1894. 
Feces collected for five days from January 18 at 1:30 P. M. to 
January 23 at 1:30 P. M. 
* Report Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, 1891, pp. 25-28. 
