Winter Soiling. 209 



burned. As a result they find the feeding and ma- 

 nurial value of both samples. 



Although all juice of the plant is looked upon as 

 so much water, curing clover hay or cornstalks, and 

 then adding to them as much water as they lost in 

 juice, this, while it usually gives better results than 

 when fed dry, does by no means restore the forage 

 to its full feeding value. You may go a step farther 

 and cook or steam the feed, and still you have not 

 been able to bring back to it what it possessed, or, at 

 least, what the animals are able to extract from the 

 same food in its green, succulent state. 



That ensilage contains greater feeding value than 

 cured corn, no one should expect. There is cer- 

 tainly nothing within the four walls of a silo to 

 manufacture albuminoids, carbohydrates, or fat; 

 therefore, whatever difference there may be in the 

 result of feeding green forage and cured, that differ- 

 ence should be credited to the juice of the plant as 

 so much food. Every farmer knows that whole 

 cornstalks are always fed at a waste. From fifty to 

 seventy-five per cent, of the stalk goes into the 

 manure pile, unless absolute hunger induces the 

 stock to eat more than they otherwise would. Even 

 when run through the cutter a large proportion is 

 wasted. The experiment station says that the grain 

 is forty-five per cent, of the plant, and that forty-five 

 per cent, of the value of the plant is in the stalk be- 

 low the ear, and only ten per cent, of the value of 

 the stalk above the ear. 

 14 



