TIME OF GREATEST NUTRITIVE VALUE. 41 



There is no doubt in my mind that there is more 

 available nutrition in a kernel of grain when it is fully 

 grown, before it has had time to harden, before a part of 

 its substance has been converted into a hard, tough en- 

 velope which is almost indigestible, than at any subse- 

 quent time. This hard protecting envelope is a wise and 

 providential provision to protect the kernel as a seed for 

 future crops. Heretofore no means have been known 

 to preserve grain except by ripening and drying, nor to 

 cure forage crops except by drying : since Ensilage has 

 been proved practical, we may now harvest all our crops 

 when they contain the greatest available amount of as- 

 similable nutritive elements, and preserve them unimr 

 paired indefinitely. In this view of the object of ripen- 

 ing grain, the conclusion is irresistible that the nutritive 

 acme in corn and other grain is to be found at or before 

 the blossoming period, as it is in the grasses. 



It is by no means certain, so far as the kernel of grain 

 itself is concerned, that the ripened grain contains as 

 large an amount of available nutritive elements as it does 

 when in the milk. I have often observed that pigs when 

 fed upon soft corn grow better than when fed upon old 

 corn. Experiments in feeding swine at the West, re- 

 ported in ''The National Live Stock Journal," show this. 

 In the August number I find the following : 



" There is no article of food for swine, available to the ordinary farm- 

 er, that will fatten hogs so rapidly as green corn. Its use may be com- 

 menced just as soon as the kernels are fairly filled with 'milk;' and 

 the gain that young pigs, as well as mature hogs, will make upon this 

 food is surprising: In preparing swine for exhibition at the autumn fairs, 

 or for an early market for pork, nothing is equal to it." 



