298 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY [ IV, IV.

In this experiment (with paddy straw as the sole feed) the feeding was carried
out for four months and eighteen days (11th April to 28th August 1932) at Dacca and
for four months (25th April to 25th August 1932) at Rangpur. At Dacca the
digestion and metabolism experiments were conducted twice while at Rangpur only
once. The two tests on the same animals at Dacca has enabled a better comparison
of the fluctuation of digestibility and it will be noted that in the case of D₇, during
an interval of two months between one test and another, the digestibility (of dry
matter—to take one component) showed a decline from 47.93 per cent. to 35.69 per
cent. (Column 6, Table I) or 25.54 per cent. over the first digestion, whereas in the
case of D₈ during a course of five weeks' interval it has gone down from 43.69 per
cent. to 28.92 per cent. or 33.81 per cent. over the first digestion. The protein figures
have been negative in all except in one test and the digestion of all other com-
ponents have gone down naturally reflecting in a gradually decreasing availability
of total digestible nutrients and net energy (Table II, Columns 4 and 6).