TRANSFORMATION DURING SILOING. 165 



fact that the residuum may be kept for a longer period and may 

 undergo considerable organic changes, it may always be utilized 

 to advantage in cattle feeding. 



During the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, it was to be noticed 

 that in Germany there was a marked decrease in the number of 

 cattle, and for a time there were certain fears entertained. that it 

 would be impossible to find means of getting rid of the enor- 

 mous quantity of residuum cossettes that were left after the 

 sugar campaign. These arguments were very misleading, for 

 the simple reason that the product was properly siloed not only 

 by the farmers but by the manufacturers, and while practically 

 only used in some cases two years afterwards, extraordinary 

 benefits were derived from this practice. The total number of 

 head of cattle soon became normal, but as the consumption at 

 first was comparatively small there was necessarily an increased 

 demand for fertilizers, which consequently brought to light the 

 possible fertilizing value of this residuum. 



Dohrn has also kept this material for a year and a half, and 

 was perfectly satisfied with the results he subsequently obtained 

 in feeding. 



Unfortunately these organic losses during siloing are not the 

 only ones to be considered. The analysis shown above would 

 lead one to believe that there has resulted a certain amelioration, 

 which in reality does not exist. On the contrary, digestion 

 experiments according to the methods of Stutzer, while they 

 do not prove very much, claim to show that there is a mistake 

 in supposing that the siloed cossettes are improved after a pro- 

 longed keeping. 



Experiments by Morgen show that the digestibility of nitro- 

 genous substances is 83.2 per cent, for the soured cossettes as 

 compared with 76.3 per cent, for the fresh cossettes. Saillard's 

 experiments show that the digestibility for the siloed cossettes 

 is only 73 per cent. But all these investigations prove nothing 

 as regards the condition in which the nitrogenous substances 

 exist in the residuum, for the simple reason that a certain 

 amount of these constituents consists of ammonia, the nutri- 

 tive value of which may be considered nil. Regarding these 

 losses different authorities, adopting numerous modes of siloing, 

 have arrived at very different results. 



