Dec. 2, 1908.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 1011 



The Composition of Green Maize and of the 

 Silage produced therefrom. 



HAROLD E. ANNETT, B.Sc. (Lond.), 8.E.A.C., Dip., 

 Indian Department of Agriculture, 



AND 



EDWARD J. RUSSELL, D.Sc. (Lond.), 

 Rothamsted Experiment Station, late of the South Eastern Agricultural College, Wye. 



Introduction. 



The process of making silage is an ancient one,i and the scientific investiga- 

 tions date back at least to 1873, when Weiske,- at the Proskau experiment 

 station, showed that there was a loss of carbohydrate, fibre, and protein in 

 making silage from sainfoin and other crops. It was, however, l)y no means 

 general till after the publication, in 1875, of Goffart's remarkable success 

 with maize silage at Burtin, in the barren district of Sologne (Loire-et-Cher).3 

 Both Grandeau^ and Barral^ analysed Goffart's silage ; the former noted the 

 production of volatile and non-volatile acids, and labelled them acetic and 

 lactic acids respectively, in which practice he has been followed hy most later 

 analysts. Five years later Kellner^ demonstrated by careful quantitative 

 measurements that the decrease in protein was accompanied by an increase 

 in the amount of " amide " nitrogen. In his experiments about 28 per cent, 

 of the nitrogen was lost, but in a subsequent paper*" this was traced to 

 volatilisation of ammonia during manipulation of the sample. Kellner 

 considered, and probaljly correctly, that no nitrogen is lost in the free state 

 from the silo. 



Much attention was given to the subject in the wet cycle of years 

 ending in 1883 : Fry's letters appeared in the Agricultural Gazette and 

 Mark Lane Express for 1883 and 1884, and were reprinted in book form in 

 188.58 ; numerous papers, scientific and practical, were published in 188+ and 

 1885, and in the latter year a commission sat under Lord Walsingham to 

 collect evidence and report thereon. 9 Experiments were also made at 



' See, e.(/., .Johnston, rrans. Hujldand ami Agrk. Soc. 1843, new series, 9, .')7. A good 

 historical account is given by Jenkins, Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc. 1884, 2U, 12l). 



* Quoted by Voelcker, .Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc. 1884, 20. 



' Sur la culture et Fcnsilage du Mais-fourrage (Memoire present*? a la SociL'te centrale 

 d'Agriculture de France, 1875). On p. 8 he says : " Lorsciue j'ai achete le domaine en 

 1840. ..huit nialheureuses vaches et cent vingt br<^bis composaient tout le cheptel d'alors 

 et vivaient miserablenient...aujourd"hui le meme domaine nourrit abondamment soixante- 

 huit betes a cornes, six chevaux, et trois cents moutons." He had about .300 acres. 



* Ibid. p. 39. ^ p. 50 and Part 2, p. 24. 

 « Land. Versuchs-Stat. 1880, 26, 447. Mangold leaves were used. 



■' Kellner and Sowano, Land: Vcr-nichs-Sfat. 1889, 37, 16, also Kellner, Chem. Zeil. 

 1890, 14, 905. 



* Sweet Si/age, 1885, Agric. Press Co., London. 



^ The Evidence and Report contain interesting accounts of the methods of making 

 silage, its place in the economy of the farm, and its value here and elsewhere. 



