EXPERIMENTS WITH CORN ENSILAGE. 427 



composition. Tho entire stock of good fodder corn at our 

 disposal amounted to 15,272 pounds, or seven and six-tenths 

 tons. The corn was cut when the kernels were in the milk, 

 to secure a more nutritious ensilage than at an earlier period 

 of growth could bo expected. 



Thei'c is a considerable difference in the value of a fodder 

 corn just sending out tassels and one with kernels in the 

 milk, like the one used in our case. 



A fodder corn in the former stage of growth contains in 

 many instances only from twelve to fifteen weight parts of 

 dry vegetable matter in one hundred of the entire plant, 

 whilst in the more advanced stage of growth, when the 

 kernels are in the milk and the whole plant still green, the 

 dry vegetable matter contained in one hundred weight parts 

 of the entire plant varies usually between from twenty- live 

 to twenty-eight parts ; theiefore, a dafferencc of thirty-three 

 per cent, in actual fodder, pound for pound, in favor of the 

 latter stage of growth. 



Aside from this decided advantage in actual weight, it is 

 not less certain that the quality of the fodder obtained from 

 the more matured fodder corn is of a superior nutritious 

 character when compared with that of the less matured 

 article. For the nitrogenous constituents of the more ma- 

 tured fodder corn, although less in quantity, are more largely 

 of a kind (true albuminoids) better fitted for the formation 

 of blood than they nre at an earlier stage of growth. The 

 entire plant is also richer in valuable non-nitrogenous con- 

 stituents, as fat, sugar and starch, than in the latter case. 



To ascertain the degree of temperature within the ensilage 

 at the various stages of its alteration, a gas-pipe one and one- 

 fourth inch in diameter was driven, in each case, through a 

 tight-fitting hole in the cover of the silo to within one foot 

 of its floors. A thermometer was kept inside of this tube 

 to note from time to time the changes in the temperature of 

 the ensilage. The results of these observations arc stated 

 below. 



The expense for filling the silo amounted to $1.50 per ton 

 of corn-fodder ensilage. 



As the silos arc not yet opened a further discussion of the 

 silo-product has to be deferred to an early bulletin of the 

 station. 



