238 THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



claim may be true, although in part it lacks proof. It is 

 hard to understand why slow filling, especially if inter- 

 mittent, should not increase rather than decrease the 

 losses of food compounds. Certainly the less compact the 

 mass the more intense the oxidation and the higher the 

 temperature, the latter condition indicating with cer- 

 tainty the extent of the combustion. This point is illus- 

 trated by results reached at the Pennsylvania State 

 College when the chemical changes in two large tubs of 

 sorghum silage were studied, one of which was com- 

 pactly filled and weighted at once and the other loosely 

 filled and weighted after five days. The temperature 

 rose 17 higher in the latter than in the former, with a 

 loss of two and one-half times as much organic matter 

 from the loosely filled tub. It follows from the theory of 

 Babcock and Russell, previously noted, that the less the 

 oxygen available in the air spaces and the quicker the 

 plant tissue dies the less will be the combustion or loss 

 of organic matter. These authors suggest as a prac- 

 tical application of their theory that the air be excluded 

 from the silo as rapidly as possible and only mature corn 

 be ensiled, because such tissue will die sooner than im- 

 mature, having less vitality. Their data seem to prove 

 conclusively, also, that the evolution of much heat when 

 a fodder is first ensiled is not essential to the formation 

 of first-class silage. The repeated exposure of a loose 

 upper stratum, which occurs with slow, intermittent 

 filling, must cause extensive loss from portions of the silo. 

 It must be held, in view of the experimental data now at 

 hand, that the more promptly the air is excluded and 

 expelled by the reduction of the contents of the silo to a 

 condition of maximum compactness, the less will be 

 the fermentation losses. The term "sweet silage" me ins 



