282        The Nutritive Value of Alkali-treated Cereal Straws

                            TABLE XIX

Water content in the faecal and urinary excretions

it is noteworthy that the urinary excretion during paddy straw feeding
was significantly higher than the excretion observed during wheat straw
feeding. The higher urinary excretion was true both for treated and
untreated straw. The high excretion of urine during the paddy straw
feeding was observed by Warth [1926], but Carbery et al. [1937] failed to
notice diuresis, when paddy straw constituted the sole feed. The urination,
however, was higher when the straw was supplemented with cake. In the
present investigation, some interesting observations on this aspect are worth
recording :—

The average urinary volume of the animals during wheat and paddy
straw feeding are given in Table XX.

                                        TABLE XX

It is apparent from Table XX that the feeding of paddy straw definitely
increased the volume of urine excreted by the animals.

Before the animals were subjected to this series of straw-feeding experi-
ments, they were receiving a mixed ration consisting of dairy mixture, hay and
some green food. In the winter of 1941, this ration was for the first time
changed in order to make a preliminary study of the effect of feeding paddy