Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-08-22
Physiology Of Digestion in Ruminants.

order to enable the farmer to feed his
farm-stock in the most economical and
advantageous manner. Large quanti-
ties of grain are wasted yearly for want
of q little practical knowledge of this
kind, while the health of animals is
often impaired by iniudlcious feeding,'
and growth is checked. The knowledge
re Iuired to enable one to feed intel
ligently and economically is not diff
cult to acquire, nor would it take much,
time to acquire it. A brief description
of the digestive organs Of ruminants, or
animals that ''chew the cud.n is neces-
sary in order to explain the physiology
of digestion. "
Ruminants have four stomanhs or
compartments. The first, called the
rumen or paunch, is the largest, COM
posing about nine-tenths of the mass of
the four stomachs. The grass and hay.
which the animals gather and swallow
go directly to their first stomach, and
are stored up there to be ground and
macerated preparatory to the real work
of digestion. Coarse food like hay or
grass. when eaten, is only partially
m~asticated; but while it remains in the
first stomach, it is subjected to a process
which so!tens its hard fibers and great
ly facilitates complete solution during
the succeeding stages of diges-
ton. 1t is highly desirable, as
will subsequently be seen, to have
al the food eaten sub ected to this
macerating process N the rumen. The
second stomach, although described as
a second organ, is really only an ap-
pendage of the first, lying close to the
esophagus or gullet, and separated from
the first outlet by a rather prominent
fold, which makes, however, only 3
partial separation between the two,
The communicating opening is so large
that the semi-liquid contents pass freely
from one stomach to the other during
the movements Of the organs. The in
terror of the second stomach presents q
honey-co nb-like arrangement Of its
mucous membrane. In this the food
is rolled into pellets, and by a spasmodic
motion thrown back into the mouth for
reconsideration. After reconsideration, in-
stead of going back into the first stom-
ach, as it did when first swallowed, the
food now goes directly into the third
or manifold stomach. By a peculiar
arrangement of the lower part of the
gullet remasticated food, or any food
in a state of minute division, as NEAL,
forinstance is carried directly into the
third stomach instead of the first. The
fourth stomach, or real digesting ,stom-
acn, is pear-shaped, and connects with
the third stomach. 1t is considerably
larger than the second OR third stom-
ach, but very much smaller than the
first.
The practical point which it is I'M
portant for stockholders to bear in
mind, is the different course taken by
different kinds of food, according to the
state OF iineness in which they are at
the time they are eaten. Formerly it
was supposed that all the food eaten by
an OK or cow went directly to the
paunch, was subsequently remast;cated.
and then passed along through the
other portions of the digestive ira It.
Numerous experiments have been made
which have demonstrated that articles
in a finely divyle l state go directly to
the third stomach, and thence after
some %trituration to the fourth. Flourens
performed one interesting experiments
upon sheep. He fed green luccrne to a
sheep, killed it immed ately, and found
this TODD mainly in the paunch, q small
quantity in the second stomach. and
none in the tn rd and fourth. He fed
oats with the same result. Small pieces
of roots swallowed were found only in
the first and second stomachs. After
feeding pulped roots, he found the
greater part in the pauncb, but a con-
siderable quantity in the second, third
and fourth stomachs. Prof. L. B. Ar
mold made a dozen or more experiments
| ip faoIinr ,,,o.l orl Dtha,. food <f 1,ors
GUS degrees of fineness, just before
found the fine food in the fourth stom-
When an ear of corn was wrapped in q
wisp OF green hay SO that the hay and
corn were ground together. the meal,
finely ma~sticated, adhered to the hay,
SO that hay and corn went into the
first stomach together. Professor E.
n. Stewart, OF Lake View, n. j.,
made several experiments in feeding
various kinds OF fine food, and found
that in every case it went into the
fourth stomach. The experiments all
90 to show that, as q general rule, fine
food when fed alone goes directly to the
third and fourth stomachs.
The grinding or macerating process
which goes on for several hours in tha
first stomach softens the food and
greatly facilitates complete digestion.
1t IS an advantage 90 have all the food
eaten by the animal subjected to this
preliminary process. Even the meal
which is fed, if retained for several
hours in the fluids of the first stomach,
will be more completely digested and
be less likely to derange the digestive
organs than if it went directly to the
fourth stomach. Fine feed Of all kinds is
made to go through the first stomach
by being fed with coarse food, such as
hay. By mixing meal, bran or other
substances with water and mingling
with the hay, or moistening the hay
and sprinkling the dry meal upon it,
they will be all eaten together, and will
all go to the first stomach, be remasticat-
ed and subjected to the whole digestive
process, ensuring more complete diges-
ton than is usually obtained when tic
meal is fed alone, us is the common
practice. The more literally meal is
led, the more desirable is it that it
should be subjected to the whole di-
gestive process. In q state OF nSture