246 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS WITH SHEEP. 

BY C. S$. PHELPS AND A. P. BRYANT: 

One of the most important factors in the study of the laws 
of animal nutrition is the digestibility of the food. Only that 
portion of the food which is actually digested by the animal 
can be used for nutriment. Chemical analysis alone does not 
tell the nutritive value of the food, but the chemical composi- 
tion taken in connection with actual digestion tests indicates 
quite accurately what portion of the food may be available for 
the nutrition of the animal. From experiments made else- 
where it has been found that differences of age, breed, and 
species of ruminants make comparatively slight differences in 
the proportions they digest from any given material. The 
digestibility of a feed by a sheep can be taken asa tolerably 
Correct measure of its digestibility by a cow or steer. As 
sheep are easier to experiment with than the larger animals, 
and as many of the feeding experiments by the Station are 
with sheep, they have been employed in the digestion experi- 
ments which are here reported upon. 
In order to learn more of the digestibility of feeding stuffs, 
and because of the need of digestion factors for use in connec- 
tion with feeding experiments, the Station began in 1894 a 
series of digestion experiments with sheep. For a description 
of the method of conducting these experiments the reader is 
referred to the Annual Report of the Station for 1894, pages 
107-109. It will suffice to say here that the feeding stuffs, 
the uneaten residues, and the feces were weighed and analyzed, 
and the differences between the amounts of organic matter and 
nutrients in the food eaten and in the feces were taken as the 
measure of the amounts digested. The sheep were kept in pens 
about five feet square, with mangers so arranged as to prevent 
loss of food by scattering. The feces were collected in rubber- 
lined bags. Each experiment lasted twelve days. ‘The first 
