The principal varieties of bedding are straw, peat moss, sawdust, wood shavings, tan, ferns, sand, and fir needles.

Comparative Powers Of Absorption Of Water And Ammonia By Different Kinds Of Bedding

Muntz and Girard give the following table to show how much water certain kinds of bedding can absorb: -

Times its own weight of water.

Sand ........

0.25

Vegetable mould ......

0.50

Fir needles .......

2.00

Dead leaves . . . . . . .

2.00

Ferns ........

2.12

Wheat straw .......

2.20

Oat straw .......

2.28

Barley straw .......

2.85

Moss........

2.75

Sawdust of fir .

4.20

Tan ........

5.00

Peat moss .......

6.00

The sample of peat moss experimented upon for the above table, must have been an indifferent one; because good specimens of this bedding can absorb from 8 to 10 times their own weight of water.

Muntz and Girard have shown by experiment that powdered peat, when moistened with a fluid giving off ammonia (in the same manner as urine does in a stable), absorbs 6 1/2 times as much ammonia as wheat straw would do under similar circumstances, and 24 times as much as pine sawdust.