LOSSES IN DRY CURING. 13 



"So far as could be told by the eye, there had been no loss. 

 The fodder had cured in nice shape, and the stalks on the inside 

 of the bundles retained their green color, with no sign of molding 

 or heating. And yet the large shocks had lost 31 per cent, of 

 their dry matter, or feeding value; the small shocks 43 per cent, 

 and the corn spread on the ground 55 per cent. 



"On breaking or cutting the stalks these losses were explained. 

 The juice was acid, and there was a very strong acid odor, show- 

 ing that an active fermentation was taking place in this seemingly 

 dry fodder. We had noticed this strong odor the fall before and 

 all through the winter. When the fodder corn for the steers is 

 put through the feed cutter that same strong smell is present. 



"It can be said, then, that the dryness of the climate in Colo- 

 rado does not prevent fodder corn from losing a large part of its 

 feeding value through fermentation. Indeed, the loss from this 

 source is fully as great as in the damp climate in New England. 



"As compared with the losses by fermentation in the silo, the 

 cured fodder shows considerably the higher loss." 



In experiments at the Wisconsin station eleven shocks cured 

 under cover in the barn lost on an average over 8 per cent, of 

 dry matter and toward 14 per cent, of protein. In an experiment 

 at the Maine Station over 14 per cent, of dry matter was lost in 

 the process of slow drying of a large sample of fodder corn under 

 the most favorable circumstances. "It is interesting to note that 

 this loss falls almost entirely on the nitrogen -free extract, or 

 carbohydrates (see Glossary), more than two-thirds of it being 

 actually accounted for by the diminished percentage of sugars." 



Since such losses will occur in fodder cured under cover with 

 all possible care, it is evident that the average losses of dry mat- 

 ter in field-curing fodder corn, given in the preceding, by no means 

 can be considered exaggerated. Exposure to rain and storm, 

 abrasion of dry leaves and thin stalks, and other factors tend to 

 diminish the nutritive value of the fodder, aside from the losses 

 from fermentations, so that very often only one-half of the food 

 materials originally present in the fodder is left by the time it 

 is fed out. The remaining portion of the fodder has, furthermore, 

 a lower digestibility and a lower feeding value than the fodder 

 corn when put up, for the reason that the fermentations occurring 

 during the curing process destroy the most valuable and easily 

 digestible part, i. e., the sugar and starch of the nitrogen-free ex- 

 tract, which are soluble, or readily rendered soluble, in the process 

 of digestion. 



