120 



(3) Immature plauts are likely to contaiu a very large per cent of water. It will 

 readily be seeu that 2.") tous of green corn contaiuiug 90 per cent of water, gives but 

 5,000 pounds of dry matter; while 12 tons containing 75 per cent of water gives 6,000 

 pounds of dry matter. In the latter case we get a thousand pounds more dry matter, 

 and have to handle and store less than half the weight of gross material; while the 

 corn will still have sutficient moisture to give the resnlting silage that succulence 

 upon which its value for feeding, as compared with dry forage, largely depends. 



(4) While the percentage of uitrogeu grows less as the plant approaches maturity, 

 a much larger proportion of the nitrogen in the unripe material is in the less valua- 

 ble form of amides, than in the mature plant. So that the less percentage of nitrogen 

 in the riper product is compensated for in its increased nutritive value. 



(5) So far all the experiments go to show that the eflbrt should be made to raise the 

 largest yield of grain irrespective of stalks, no matter what purpose it is intended 

 for. If one variety gives an equal yield of grain and a greater amount of stalks and 

 blades, then of course it should be preferred, for fodder and silage purposes, to the 

 variety that gives the less stalk and blade ; but it will be found that as a rule the 

 larger the yield of grain, tiie larger will be the yield of stover. 



(6) Finally, the fact should not be lost sight of, that wood and water alone are 

 not good foods for animals, and that they are expensive products to handle. 



New York Cornell Station, Bulletin No. 17, May, 1890 (pp. 10). 



A DESCRIPTION OF COCHRAN'S METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION 

 OF FAT IN MILK, FOB THE USE OF DAIRYMEN, G. C. CALDWELL, PlI. 



D. (pp. 19-25). — This is a brief, popular explanatiou of the apparatus 

 and of the njauuer of using it, with accounts of the tests of this and other 

 methods. 



" Several methods for the determination of fat in milk, of such a char- 

 acter that they can be carried out without special acquaintance with 

 chemical manipulation, have been described recently in experiment 

 station bulletins and chemical journals.* All of them depend upon the 

 same general principle — a partial decomposition or solution of some of 

 the constituents of the milk by heating it with acid or alkali, and in 

 most cases taking up the separated fat by ether or gasoline; in one 

 method (Patrick's) no ether or gasoline is used, and in so far this method 

 has the advantage over all others." 



Tests of these methods were made in the laboratory by Messrs. W. 

 P. Cutter, of the station, and Mr. N. E. Wilson, of the university. The 

 methods of Short, Cochran, and Parsons were tested by means of fifteen 

 specimens of milk ; that of Failyer and Willard with twelve of the same 

 specimens ; and those of Patrick and Cochran weie compared with four 

 specimens. Gravimetric determinations were made in each specimen 

 by Babcock's asbestos method. t 



All the determinations were made in duplicate and some were re- 

 peated three or four times, the results being, in most cases, identical. 



* F. Gr. Short, Wisconsin Station, Report for 1688. G. E. Patrick, Iowa Station, 

 Bulletins 8 and 9. C. L. Parsons, [New Hampshire Station, Report for 1888, p. 69], 

 Journal of Analytical Chemistry, III, 273. Failyer and Willard, Ibid., 2C5. C. B. 

 Cochran, Ibid., 381. 



tNew York State Station, Report for 1883, pp. 166 and 109. 



