744 



EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



A comparison of the starch and sugar in immature Southern corn and 

 mature native corn, both grown in Maine, showed the following : 



Sugars and starch in the immature and mature corn plant. 



" There is a constant and striking difference between the percentages of starch 

 in the Southern corn and in the Maine field corn. They are much larger in the latter 

 kind. This is due undoubtedly to greater maturity. Only a small amount of starch 

 appears to be deposited in the stalk and leaves, its rapid formation and storage in 

 the plant apparently not beginning until the later development of the fruit or 

 kernels." 



The digestibility of the pentose carbohydrates, W. E. Stone 

 and W. J. Jones {Maine Sta. Rpt. 1893, pp. 44-56). — This is a reprinted 

 article,^ and relates to the study of the pentose carbohydrates in a large 

 number of feeding stuifs fed in digestion trials at the Maine Station 

 and in the feces from the same. 



" The grasses make the largest showing, but in the majority of samples the pento- 

 sans amounted to from 20 to 30 per cent of the non-nitrogenous extractive matter. . . . 



"The data for the pentosans in feces of sheep, excluding the data for Calama- 

 grostis canadensis, which evidently present something anomalous, shows 58.2 per cent 

 of pentosans to have been digested and 41.8 per cent undigested. 



"These results are worthy of consideration. Twenty of the best known food 

 stuffs for cattle are here shown to contain a minimum of from 6 to 16 per cent of their 

 dry weight in pentosans, of which an average of only 58.2 per cent is found to be 

 digestible. It appears, then, that while these bodies are to be for the present classi- 

 fied among the carbohydrates, they are really much less digestible, and hence of less 

 food value, than the better known members of this group, such as starch, sugar, etc. 

 In many cases the indicated digestibility is even less than that assigned to the fiber 

 of the same materials, and the average of all the experiments is but little higher 

 than the corresponding average for the fiber." 



Effect of slow drying upon a sample of a succulent plant, W. 

 H. Jordan, J. M. Bartlett, and L. H. Merrill {Maine Sta. Bpt. 

 1893, pp. 35, 36). — A sample of about 500 lbs. of field corn was chopj)ed 

 fine and spread out on a scaffold to dry, and a sub sample was taken 

 and dried rapidly in a steam closet in the laboratory. Analyses of the 

 rapidly and slowly dried samples are given. 



"It seems that for each 100 lbs. of green corn 3.58 per cent of dry matter was lost 

 in the process of slow drying under the most favorable circumstances. This was 

 14.13 per cent of the total dry matter in the fresh plant, which means that of each 

 100 lbs. of dry substance originally in the plant only 85.87 lbs. were saved. 



»Agl. Sci., 7 (1893), No. 1, p. 6. 



