.9 | | |
| Parsnip | 2.6 | Lucerne | 26.7 | | |
| | | Sainfoin | 28.7 | | |
+-----------------+---------+-----------------+-----------+---------+---------+

+------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
| | | | Stems and | Fodder | Cereal |
| |Leguminous.| Oil Seeds.|Foliage of | Crops. | Straws. |
| | | |Root Crops.| | |
+------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
|Average % of water| 14 | 7 | 87 | 70-80 | 15 |
+------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+

* This percentage is calculated on airdry-produce containing 15% of
water.

The above figures have a purely empirical value, since they represent a
complicated mixture of various residues derived from the celluloses and
compound celluloses. This mixture may be further resolved, and by
special quantitative methods the proportions of actual cellulose,
ligno-cellulose and cuto-celluloses estimated (J. Konig, _Ber._, 1906,
39, p. 3564). The figures are taken as an inverse measure of
digestibility; at the same time it has been established that this group
of relatively indigestible food constituents are more or less digestible
and assimilable as flesh and fat producers. The percentage or
coefficient of digestibility of the celluloses of the more important
food-stuffs--green fodder, hay, straw and grains--varies from 20 to 75%.
It has also been established that their physiological efficiency is,
under certain conditions, quite equal to that of starch.

It must also be borne in mind that the indigestible food residues, as
finally voided by the animal, have played an important mechanical part
as an aid to digestion of those constituents more readily attacked in
the digestive tract of animals. They are further an important factor of
the agricultural cycle. Returned to the soil as "farm-yard manure,"
mixed with other cellulosic matter which has served as litter, they add
"fibre" to the soil and, as a mechanical diluent of the mineral soil
components, maintain this in a more open condition, penetrable by the
atmospheric gases, and promoting distribution of moisture. Further by
breaking do