166 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fifteen inches depth in the silo, 27.9 per cent of the organic 

 matter of the green-corn fodder had been lost, and, at a 

 depth of thirty inches, 34.70 per cent ; whilst in a second 

 trial (B), at from thirty-seven to thirty-eight inches in depth, 

 84.8 per cent were lost. These results, in connection with 

 those noticed in the previously described experiments with 

 beet-root refuse and esparsette, demonstrate plainly that the 

 preservation of green fodder in silos causes a considerable 

 loss of valuable organic constituents, even when managed in 

 an exceptionally careful manner. Those who are somewhat 

 familiar with the transformation of starch}- and saccharine 

 substances into alcoholic products, and subsequently into 

 acids, know that in either case nearly one-half their weight 

 passes off in a gaseous state, and are therefore expecting in 

 the silo treatment the largest losses in those articles of green 

 fodder which contain in considerable proportion one or the 

 other, or both, of these widely diffused proximate organic 

 constituents of plants. 



The composition of ensilage varies in a not less degree, 

 taking the entire contents of a silo into consideration, than 

 that of the green crop which serves for its production. The 

 same is true as far as the ensilage in different parts of the 

 silo is concerned, as has been shown in the preceding pages. 



Composition of Corn Ensilage from Different Silos. 



• From the silo of John M. Bailey, Esq., of Billerica, Mass., December, 1879. 



