14 ADVANTAGES OF THE SILO. 



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 Colorado 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 

 i;he 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 ex- 

 tract, or carbohydrates (see Glossary), more than two- 

 l;hirds 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 aver- 

 age losses of dry matter in field-curing fodder corn, given 

 in the preceding, by no means can be considered exagger- 

 ated. 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- 



