164 



t Id this investigation tlie author lays but little emphasis upon the 

 action of ferments in the coagulation of fibrin. The investigations 

 of Professor Conn, rejwrted in Bulletin No. 4 of the Storrs School 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, have called attention anew to the 

 action of bacteria in milk. These two investigators, then, are ap- 

 proaching the same subject, but from different standpoints. A^Hiai 

 is now wanted is the further study of the fermentation in milk. 

 Among the questions that need investigation are: 



(1) Does normal milk contain a ferment (or ferments) analogous 

 to the fibrin ferment which has been assumed to cause the coagulation 

 of blood? If so, is this ferment contained in the milk as the latter 

 is elaborated in the lacteal glands, or is it acquired from the air 

 after the milk is drawn from the cow ? Is it an unorganized ferment, 

 independent of bacteria or other organisms? "What are the condi- 

 tions under which the action of the ferment is exercised? What are 

 the changes in milk which it causes? 



(2) What bacteria and other organisms which cause fermentation 

 does milk receive from air? Under what conditions do they act and 

 what changes do they cause in milk and cream? The solution of 

 these and kindred questions will require profound, painstaking, and 

 long continued experimental study ; but that study is indispensable. 

 The attempt to get at a satisfactory explanation of the processes 

 involved in the formation and ripening of cream, the souring and 

 coagulation in milk, and the making of butter and cheese without an 

 understanding of the nature and the action of the ferments and the 

 processes of fermentation in milk is work in the dark. This is simply 

 one of the many illustrations of the need of abstract research to 

 explain processes of the greatest importance, and to make the prac- 

 tical application most feasible and most successful. 



BULLETIN No. 19, APIUL. 1889. 



InTRODUCTIOX — NOTES ON SILAGE, W. A. HeNRY, B. AgR. (pp. 3, 



4). — Although there are now probably 2,000 silos in the State, the 

 demand for information on this subject is greater than ever. The 

 object of this bulletin is to answer inquiries received by the Station. 



From our correspondence and reports gathered at institutes it is plain that 

 nineteen farmers out of twenty wlio have used the silo are well pleased with 

 this method of food preservation, though all have not been able to secure first- 

 class silage. 



AVhile we already know nnich aboiit the silo, very much remains to 

 be found out. The high temperature developed in the silo as at 

 present managed involves waste. How to prevent this is still a 

 problem. To produce " sweet " silage, which seems very desirable, 

 the essential condition appears to be that the corn be well matured, 

 i. e.. that it contain relatively little water. Farmers are warned not 

 to feed corn silage exclusively, and the o]Dinion is expressed that " the 



