Mar. 4, i9i8 CoYn-StoveY SUagc 591 



desirable. It should be kept in mind that these tests were all made 

 with rather dry stover. In the case of ensiling soon after the corn is 

 husked, 2 parts of water might be too much. However, it appears 

 from our observ^ations that there is less danger of adding too much 

 water than of getting too small an amount, and that considerable water 

 may be added above the required amount without injury to the product. 

 The water should be added uniformly as the silo is being filled so that 

 all the dry cut stover becomes thoroughly wet down. If this precau- 

 tion is not taken, the water may follow channels down through the silage 

 and waste away at the bottom of the silo. In such an instance spoiled 

 silage might result in some parts of the silo because of an insufficient 

 amount of water. 



FERMENTATION OF STOVER SILAGE 



To obtain information on the nature of the fermentation which takes 

 place in silage made from stover, determinations were made of the vola- 

 tile and nonvolatile acids, temperatures, and numbers and types of 

 bacteria at various stages of the ripening process. 



Samples for examination were obtained by means of a 2-inch auger 

 provided with an extension shaft of 8 feet, thus making it possible to 

 penetrate to the center of the silo. By repeatedly boring in a short dis- 

 tance and withdrawing the auger until the center of the silo was reached, 

 no difficulty was experienced in securing sufficient material for the 

 different tests. The sample obtained in this way represented the silage 

 mass from the wall to the center of the silo. Not more than one boring 

 was made in one place, the different samples being removed at points 

 all the way around the silo and from 3 to 8 feet from the ground. The 

 material so obtained was subjected to pressure in an ordinary lard 

 press and sufficient juice collected for the various examinations made. 



Acid formation. — There can be no doubt that the amount and char- 

 acter of acids in silage influence its quality profoundly. Since it has 

 been the general experience that extremely green com produces a very 

 sour silage, while com more nearly mature produces a silage with less 

 acid and of a much better quality, the acid fermentation in silage made 

 from dry material is of interest. 



The volatile acidity was determined by subjecting a loo-gm. sample 

 of juice to steam distillation under reduced pressure until 4 liters of 

 distillate were secured. These were titrated directly after collection with 

 Njio barium hydrate, with phenolphthalein as the indicator. The non- 

 volatile acidity was obtained by the difference between the volatile 

 acidity and a total acid determination made by the titration of 20 gm. 

 of juice, diluted to 500 c. c. with carbon-dioxid-free water, against 

 Njio barium hydroxid. In Table I the nonvolatile and volatile acids 

 (calculated as lactic and acetic, respectively) are reported in terms of 

 percentage of air-dry material. 



