236 EXPERIMENT STATION— BULLETINS. 



WHEN AND HOW TO PLANT. 



We sow with the Vandiver corn planter, in drills 3 feet 9 inches apart, 

 using about 12 quarts of seed to the acre, and cultivate thoroughly during 

 the growing season. 



While very large yields per acre of ensilage corn are frequently reported, 

 an experience of some years leads me to infer that these large yields are 

 based on estimates, rather than on actual weighings. I am of the opinion 

 that 20 tons to the acre is an exceptionally large yield. We have had some 

 very good crops, but have never exceeded that weight per acre. From the 

 10th to the 20th of May is the best time for planting in this State. 



WHEN TO CUT THE CORN. 



For some years corn was put into the silo when very green. We now know 

 that to make ensilage of greatest value, the corn should be more mature. 

 The practice among those most successful with the silo, is to cut when the 

 grain is beginning to glaze. 



Prof. Goessmann, of the Massachusetts Experiment Station, who has given 

 this subject much attention from a chemical standpoint, says, in the report 

 for 1887: "It was found that the same variety of corn, raised under fairly 

 corresponding circumstances, as far as the general character of the soil and 

 the mode of cultivation are concerned, contained in one hundred weight 

 parts, at the time of the first appearance of the tassel, from twelve to fifteen 

 weight parts of dry vegetable matter, and from eighty-five to eighty-eight 

 parts of water, while at the time of the beginning of the glazing of the ker- 

 nels the former was noticed to vary from twenty-three to twenty-eight 

 weight parts, and the water from seventy-seven to seventy-two." 



Speaking of changes in plant composition, he says : " As long as the vital 

 energy of an annual plant is still essentially spent in the increase of its size, 

 as a rule but a comparatively small amount of valuable organic compounds, 

 as starch, sugar, etc., accumulate within its cellular tissue. The compara- 

 tive feeding value of the same kind of fodder plants, or any 'particular part 

 of such plants, is not to be measured by its size but by the quantity of valu- 

 able organic constituents stored up in its cellular system." 



He draws these conclusions : " The amount of vegetable matter in a given 

 weight of green fodder corn, cut at the beginning of the glazing of the 

 kernels, is known to be not only nearly twice as large, as compared with that 

 contained in an equal weight of green fodder corn when just showing the 

 tassel, but it is also known to be, pound for pound, more nutritious, for it 

 contains more starch, more sugar, more of valuable nitrogenous matter, etc." 

 We have put corn into the silo when the stalks were partially dry and some- 

 times after they had been frosted, and while we cannot doubt that there was 

 some loss in nutrition, the ensilage was fairly good, and I am confident the 

 corn so injured could in no other way have been as cheaply and economically 

 stored for winter use. 



The following tables are inserted here for reference, the first to show the 

 difference in the nutritive value of ensilage made of corn cut at different 

 stages of growth. 



The analyses were made by Dr. C. A. Goessmann, Director of the Massa- 

 chusetts Experiment Station. 



