58 AGRICULTURAL EXPERLMENT STATION. [Jan. 



2. Fodder Corn and Corn Ensilage. 



The last annual report on the work of the Experiment Sta- 

 tion contains upon pages 52 and 53 a record of observations 

 concerning the gradual increase of vegetable matter in the 

 fodder corn during its successive stages of growth. A series 

 of tests carried out with plants taken from our fields had 

 demonstrated the fact that the vegetable matter in the variety 

 of corn on trial (Clark) had increased from fifty to one 

 hundred per cent, in actual weight, between the time of the 

 first appearance of the tassel and the beginning of the glazing 

 of the kernels. It was found that the same variety of corn, 

 raised under fairly corresponding circumstances, as far as the 

 general character of the soil and the mode of cultivation are 

 concerned, contained in one hundred weight parts at the time 

 of the first appearance of the tassel from twelve to fifteen 

 weight parts of dry vegetable matter, and from eighty-five to 

 eighty-eight parts of water ; whilst at the time of the l)eginning 

 of the glazing of the kernels the former was noticed to vary 

 from twenty-three to twenty-eight weight parts, and the water 

 from seventy-seven to seventj'-two. These results of our 

 investigation left no doubt about the fact that our green 

 fodder corn at the time of the beginning of the glazing of 

 the kernels contained nearly twice as much vegetable matter 

 per ton weight of corn as at the time of the appearance of the 

 tassels. 



This feature in the change of the composition of the fodder 

 corn during its growth is not an exceptional one ; similar 

 chano-es are noticed in all our farm plants. Our observations 

 in this direction were reported for the purpose of furnishing 

 some more definite numerical values for the consideration of 

 our practical farmers. As long as the vital energy of an 

 annual plant is still essentially spent in the increase of its size, 

 as a rule but a comparatively small amount of valuable organic 

 compounds, as starch, sugar, etc., accumulates within its cellu-- 

 lar tissue. The comparative feeding value of the same kind 

 of fodder plants, or any particular part of such plants, is not to 

 be measured by its size, but by the quantity of valuable organic 

 nitroo-enous and non-nitrogenous constituents stored up in its 

 cellular system. The larger or smaller amount of dry vegeta- 



