256 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sour-Corn Fodder. 

 (Green-Corn Fodder from Silos.) 



A new mode of applying green-corn fodder has been 

 of late more prominently discussed in agricultural papers 

 which aims at preserving the fodder for a later period in the 

 season in its unimpaired condition. The fresh-cut corn is 

 either by itself packed tightly into pits, or previously cut, 

 and mixed with two parts of fodder to one part of straw, 

 and stamped into cemented cisterns, to be kept there, under 

 exclusion of air, to undergo a kind of fermentation. 



i. 



ii. 



in. 



IV. 



Water 



Nitrogenous matter 

 x at) . • • . . 

 Sugar . . . . . 

 Non-nitrogenous extract matter 

 Acid (acetic acid or lactic acid) 



Ash 



Cellulose .... 



82.20 

 0.90 

 0.18 

 0.13 

 7.67 



0.95 

 3.76 



81.28 

 1.24 

 0.26 

 0.15 

 9.58 

 0.22 

 2.25 

 4.91 



59.02 

 2.44 

 0.66 

 0.38 



18.45 



3.89 

 15.15 



60.72 

 3.74 

 1.50 

 1.89 



14.59 

 0.40 

 8.43 

 8.70 



No. I. of the above analyses refers to a sample of corn 

 before blooming ; No. II., to the sample (I.) after fermenta- 

 tion; No. III. represents a sample of corn in blossom; and 

 No. IV., the same sample mixed with straw, as previously 

 stated, and subsequently fermented. The pits, or cemented 

 cisterns, are usually from twelve to eighteen feet long, four 

 to six feet deep, and about three to four feet wide : the layer 

 of earth which covers the mass has to be several feet thick 

 to exclude as effectually as possible the free access of the 

 air. Four weeks usually suffice to complete the fermenta- 

 tion. Forty to fifty pounds of the fermented stalks are usu- 

 ally fed with from two to three pounds of oil-cakes to milk 

 cows, with good effect. Sixty to seventy pounds of fer- 

 mented-corn fodder are equal to from one hundred to one 

 hundred and twenty pounds of fresh green-corn fodder. 



The fermented-corn fodder has of late been largely used 

 by farmers in France in particular, who sell their sugar-beet 

 roots to distant sugar-factories, and who cannot afford to 

 carry the beet-pulp back, on account of the too high rates of 

 transportation. 



