1906.] DISCUSSION. 261 



frost, I think it should be allowed to wilt, probably for 

 a day, before putting it in the silo, and that would prevent 

 excessive acidity which would otherwise characterize that kind 

 of ensilage. 



Secretary Brown. Mr. President, I beg pardon for inter- 

 rupting again, but I desire to give a word of experience. One 

 fact, you know, is worth a hundred theories. I had the mis- 

 fortune a few years ago to procure some very poor seed corn 

 for my silo. Of the first planting I do not believe there was 

 more than one grain in a thousand came up, and the second 

 planting gave me such poor returns that I found I had not 

 silage corn enough to more than half fill my silo. At that time 

 I had a large crop of field corn, our common flint corn, and in 

 order to have the ensilage corn and field corn go into the same 

 silo together, I allowed the field corn to thoroughly ripen, and 

 the ensilage corn was then pretty green. I picked the best 

 ears from three or four acres of the field corn, and it was white 

 unto the harvest when I picked them. I filled my silo half 

 full, I should say, with that dry corn fodder from which the 

 best ears had been plucked. On top of that I put the ensilage 

 corn, of which there was enough to fill the silo, and when we 

 opened it in the winter, and got down to that dry corn fodder, 

 I found the best ensilage there was in the pit. The very best 

 there was in the pit was that dry corn fodder which was at the 

 bottom of the silo. 



Question. Did you wet it when you put it in ? 



Secretary Brown. Not at all. It appeared perfectly dry 

 to look at it from the field. It was a pretty good growth of 

 flint corn but the stalks were green. The leaves and the husks 

 were quite dry. 



Question. I would like to ask Air. Shaw what the differ- 

 ence is between those two kinds of stalks that we find in corn. 



Prof. Shaw. Mr. Chairman, I could not give the chemical 

 constituents of the difference in the two, but I lean strongly 

 tc this opinion, that as the stalk corn grows up it gets dry in 



