l6o THE CEREALS IN AMERICA 



bushels of shelled maize could be sold for fifty cents whei; 

 gathered, it would be necessary to get fifty-seven cents a bushe' 

 when thoroughly air-dry in order to get the same amount for it 



Different varieties vary greatly in regard to the percentage oi 

 moisture which they contain. Two varieties of maturing maiz( 

 have been grown the same season which contained sixteen and. 

 thirty-four per cent of water respectively. In the former case, 

 i,ooo bushels of shelled maize when husked would make 941; 

 bushels when air-dry, while in the latter case 1,000 bushel;:i 

 would make only 740 bushels when air-dry. In the first it 

 would take seventy pounds of ears as husked to make a bushe I 

 of air-dry shelled maize, while in the last instance it would 

 take ninety-seven pounds of ears to make a bushel when air- 

 dried. The weight of maize as husked does not, therefore , 

 indicate accurately its food value. 



The per cent of water in field cured fodder has been founi ( 

 to vary from twenty-three to sixty per cent and in field curec ( 

 stover from fifteen to fifty-seven per cent, thus greatly modify in^j 

 the pounds of dry substance per ton and consequently th.A 

 feeding value per ton of field cured substance. At the Cor. 

 necticut Station^ field cured maize fodder was placed in th^^ 

 barn giving perfect shelter November nth, when it containetl 

 twenty-seven per cent of water. On • February 8th, after muc/i 

 warm and damp weather, it contained fifty-four per cent of 

 water. Thus maize fodder which weighed five tons when piit 

 in storage in November weighed eight tons three months latei' . 

 This is probably unusual, but it shows the possibility of variw • 

 tion of weight due to atmospheric conditions. 



The water in silage has been found to vary from 62.4 to 87.; 

 per cent. In the first instance a ton of silage would contain 

 more than three times as much dry matter as the latter. When 

 the practice of putting maize in the silo was first started, 

 it was the custom to harvest at a much earlier period of growth 

 than at present. The average of 79.1 per cent of water in silage 



i Conn. Rpt 1878, p. 64. 



