CHAPTER VII. 



ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN WHEN CUT IN ITS 

 GREEN STATE. 



THE following is taken from J. B. Brown's translation, 

 and is a letter to Mons. A. GofTart from J. A. Barras, 

 Perpetual Secretary of the Central Agricultural Society 

 of France, and editor of " Journal de TAgriculture. " 



"You do not seek to produce a fermentation." (Earlier in the experi- 

 ments it was thought that fodder could only be preserved in a green state 

 by fermentation. This is found to be a mistake : all fermentation is 

 but the beginning of decomposition and decay, and should be avoided 

 as much as possible. J. M. B.) "You propose to maintain all its parts 

 in a condition as near as possible like that of the plant at the moment it 

 was cut. 



" It is important to ascertain what is the distribution of mineral and 

 organic matter in the different parts of the stalk of corn. 



" When it is cut for the Silo it becomes a mixture of all parts of the 

 plant in such a manner as to give to the stock those which are richest in 

 nourishment as well as those that are the poorest. 



" This is one of the advantages of the method. If you give the corn- 

 plant to the stock in the natural state, they will eat' first the tender parts, 

 and will leave the hard parts which offer the most resistance to the teeth 

 and have the least flavor. 



" I have taken thirteen stalks of corn weighing altogether 37 pounds." 

 (In reducing the weights and measures of the metric system to pounds, 

 feet, and inches, I omit small fractions, getting it near enough for all 

 practical purposes. J. M. B.), "and have cut them up into six lots as 

 follows. Each of these lots has been dried at TOO degrees (R.). The 

 stalks were cut into three parts. The length of each portion was : upper 

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