267 



the extent of this loss and its proportion to the total nitrogen lost, 

 indicated that when the ammonia which escaped during the drying of 

 tlio silage was taken into account the amount of nitrogen in the sour 

 silage was approximately equal to that in the original material before 

 ensiling; or in other words that in the fermentation of feeding stufts 

 containing much water under exclusion of air no perceptible loss of 

 nitrogen occurs. 



The present series of experiments were carried on with (1) Impcrnta 

 arundinaceaj (2) Italian vye grass, (3) buckwheat (upper part, in milk 

 stage), (4) mulberry leaves, and (5) turnij) leaves (Japanese Daikon), 

 each of which was treated as follows: About 5 kg. of the fresh material, 

 from which the coarser stems, etc., had been removed, was cut finely 

 and mixed, and while one portion was dried and analyzed at once 

 another portion was sealed air-tight in a large glass bottle and buried 

 about 1 meter deex) in the ground. From 7 to 7.5 months later the sam- 

 X)les were taken out and weighed. They were all found to be well pre- 

 served and entirely free from mold. The percentage of acid (calculated 

 for lactic acid) ranged li'om 1.25 (mulberry leaves) to 28.16 pev cent (turnip 

 leaves) in the dry matter. The nitrogen was determined directly, and 

 after previous drying, in samples of the silage from each material. None 

 Of the original materials except the turnip leaves contained more than 

 a trace of nitric acid; the latter contained 0.795 x)er cent of nitric acid 

 in the dried leaves. A determination of the nitric acid iu the silage 

 from turnip leaves indicated only a trace. The nitric acid had therefore 

 almost entirely disappeared during the souring i)rocess — a result which 

 agrees with previous observations by the author on beet leaves.* 



The results of the analyses of the different samples of silage are in 

 direct accord with the results of the experiments with white clover, 

 and lead the author to the following conclusions : 



(1) The chemical processes during the souring of feeding stuffs under 

 exclusion of air cause no perceptible loss of nitrogen as long as the 

 material used is free from apj)reciable amounts of nitric acid. 



(2) In preparing the silage for analysis by drying, ammonia is gener- 

 ated through dissociation of organic ammonia compounds. The loss by 

 this means in these experiments varied from 3.2 {Impcrata) to 23.3 j)er 

 cent (buckwheat) of the total nitrogen in the original material. 



Determinations were also made of the digestibility of the protein 

 in each of the materials before and after ensiling, as indicated by 

 Stutzer's modified method of artificial digestion. The tests of the silage 

 included tests of dried silage and of that from which the acid had been 

 extracted by digesting with absolute alcohol. It was found that iu 

 general the process of ensiling had not rendered the protein less solu- 

 ble in the digestive solutions, and in some cases in which the original 

 material contained much celhilose the solubility of the protein was even 

 higher in the silage than in the original material. 



*Laudw. Vers. Stat.; 26, p. 454. 



