INVESTIGATIONS IN- ANIMAL NU PRI ier 
SUMMARIZED BY 
W. H. JORDAN. 
During the first ten or fifteen years that the Station was in opera-_ 
tion a number of experiments with animals were conducted, having 
as their objects the testing of new feeding stuffs, a comparison of 
rations, and other problems involved in the growth of animals and 
the production of milk. It must be said that many of these experi- 
ments were carried on in a manner that rendered safe conclusions 
out of the question. The chief faults were the brief periods during 
which the rations or foods to be compared were fed, and the failure 
to plan the experiments so as to eliminate all but a single factor in 
the periods compared. There was not a sufficient recognition of | 
the facts that the influence of a ration is not a temporary matter and 
that productiveness, either of flesh or milk, is modified by the cumu- 
lative influence of long-continued feeding. However, certain ob- 
servations were made that were valuable and useful. 
INFLUENCE OF STAGE OF GROWTH OF CORN UPON ITS YIELD OF DRY 
MATTER. 
In 1888, a study! was made of the yield and composition of 
silage corn as affected by the stage of growth at the time of harvest- 
ing. Two acres of corn were cut in two lots, one September 11 and 
the other September 29, the amount of the crop at each cutting 
being weighed and samples taken for analysis. The main facts 
that were brought out by this work were that there was a material 
increase in the amount of dry matter during the eighteen days fol- 
lowing a watery stage of the kernels and that this increase con- 
sisted largely of carbohydrate material. Later work at other sta- 
tions confirms the fact that the increase of carbohydrates is mostly 
* Rpt. 7:264, 265 (1888). 
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