Bulletin 92 September, 1902 



NEW HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



SILAGE STUDIES 



BY FRED W. MORSE 



Some of the early bulletins of this station* treated the sub- 

 ject of silage, and for the past ten years the department of 

 chemistry has had it for one of its lines of investigation. The 

 following phases of the question have from time to time occu- 

 pied its attention : Differences between varieties in composi- 

 tion and feeding value, effect on composition of various quan- 

 tities of seed per acre, the composition of the crop at different 

 stages of growth, and the changes in composition of the fodder 

 while in the silo. 



COMPOSITION OF THE CROP AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF 



GROWTH. 



This phase of the subject has received much attention from 

 our experiment stations, f and the results are strikingly uni- 

 form. 



The results here tabulated were obtained in connection with 

 another problem pertaining to the corn crop ; but make an ex- 

 cellent illustration of the progressive changes in the corn plant 

 as it matures. In 1891, at Hanover, a number of plots were 

 planted by the department of agriculture with different varie- 

 ties of corn, and with various quantities of seed per acre. The 

 corn was cut at intervals during the season, weighed and sam- 

 pled, and the samples dried by hanging in the loft of the barn. 



♦Bulletins 2, 3, and 14. 



t Cornell Univ. Agri. Expt. Sta., Bull, 135. N. H. Expt. Sta., Bull. 3. N. Y. 

 Expt. Sta., 8th Ann. Kept. Vt. Expt. Sta. Rept., 1S92. Penn. Expt. Sta. Rept., 

 18S8. Maine Expt. Sta. Rept., 1S93. 



