CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FEEDING STUFFS 



61 



obtained in the cases where silage was made in pits in the ground 

 or in open stacks. In modern tall, round silos the losses of dry 

 matter have been greatly reduced, and under ordinary favorable 

 conditions will not amount to more than ten per cent. As in the 

 case of field-curing of corn, this loss falls primarily on the carbo- 

 hydrates and the protein substances, changing these in part into 

 organic acids and amides, respectively, so that the resulting silage 

 is higher in fiber and lower in nitrogen-free extract than the ma- 

 terial from which it was made. The following average analyses 

 of green fodder corn and corn silage will illustrate this fact : 



Average Composition of Green Fodder Corn and Corn Silage, in Per Cent 



There is a slight decrease in the percentage of protein in silage 

 as compared with fodder corn, but there is a further change in the 

 protein compounds during the siloing process which does not appear 

 from the average analyses given. Through the action of enzymes 

 and bacteria, a portion of the protein of the fodder corn undergoes 

 cleavage in the silo, and silage, therefore, contains a considerably 

 larger proportion of non-albuminoid or amide nitrogen than the 

 green corn (p. 11). The latter has been found to contain, on the 

 average, 27 per cent of amide nitrogen, against 40 per cent or over 

 in silage. 



Effect of Storage. Changes in the chemical composition occur 

 in many feeding stuffs in storage. These are often quantitatively 

 too slight to appear in statements of chemical analyses, but still 

 are of considerable importance, as, e.g., in the case of new and old 

 oats, corn, hay, etc. These and many other feeds lose moisture on 

 being stored; changes also occur in the composition of the dry 

 matter, which are not yet clearly understood in many cases. New 

 oats thus readily cause digestive disorders, such as colic, when fed 

 to horses, and it cannot be supposed that the difficulty arises merely 

 from the fact that such oats contain, say 10 per cent more moisture 

 than old oats. In all probability the enzymes present in the oats, 

 of which three different ones have been identified, cause certain 

 changes in the composition of the dry matter during storage; 

 although not measurable by the ordinary methods adopted in feed 



