296 



rfULLETIN No. 9, OCTOBER, 1889. 

 iilGESTIHILITY OF CORN FODDER AND SILAGE. H. P. ARilSBY. Ph. D., 



AND Wm. H. Caldwell, 13. S. (p]:». 3-lG). — " The question of the rela- 

 tive vakie of dried corn ft)dder and of corn silage has been much dis- 

 cussed and has not yet reached its final solution. One important 

 element in determining the relative value of these two fodders is their 

 percentage digestibility, that is to say, the proportion of the several 

 ingredients of each one which the animal is able to dissolve in its 

 stomach and intestines and thus to utilize. The experiments reported 

 in this bulletin are a contribution to this branch of the question." 



Dent corn from a single field was used. Two portions were put into 

 a silo divided into two pits. One pit was filled in one day ; the other 

 during seven days. A third portion was field-cured and stored in a 

 barn. 



In the digestion experiments two steers were used. These experi- 

 ments were made in the usual way, by analyzing the entire food and 

 the indigestible portion (solid excrement), and reckoning the differ- 

 ence as the digested portion. The results as given in detail in the bul- 

 letin may be briefly summarized as follows : 



"(1) The field-cured fodder proved more digestible than the silage. 



"(2) The difference was greatest in case of the woody fiber and but 

 slight for the other ingredients. 



"(8) The results of experiments elsewhere are conflicting, and 

 further investigation is necessarj^" 



RHODE ISLAND. 



Rhode Island State Agricultural Experiment Station. 



DeiJiirtiiient of Rhode l><hut<l State Agricultural Scltool. 

 Location, Kingston. Director, Charles O. Flagg, p. S. 



BULLETIN No. 3, SEPTEMBER. 1889. 



Stock feeding, H. J. Wheei.er, Ph. D. (pp. 31-07). — This is a 

 brief treatise on the composition of animals and animal products; the 

 constituents of plants, and their digestibilit}' and functions in the ani- 

 mal economy; feeding standards, and their uses; and the general 

 principles involved in the rational feeding of animals. The bulletin 

 contains a number of tables of feeding standards, composition of 

 American feeding stuffs, digestion co-efficients, percentages of digest- 

 ible materials in feeding stuffs, and the fertilizing values of feeding 

 stuffs, compiled from German and American sources. 



BULLETIN No. 4. DECEMBER, 1889. 



Bee keeping, S. Cushman (pp. 71-90). — Statistics of this industry 

 are quoted from the crop and other reports of this Department and 

 from the Rhode Island census of 1885. Improvements in hives. 



