COMPARISON BETWEEN SILOED AND DRIED COSSETTES. 193 



that allows one to compute the digestibility of the non-nitro- 

 genous extracted substances, as can be done with the nitro- 

 genous elements by means of the Stutzer method. 



It is declared that when non-nitrogenous extractible and 

 digestible substances are mixed with the indigestible and ex- 

 posed to the action of micro-organisms, a fermentation or putre- 

 faction follows. The most soluble and most easily digested sub- 

 stances are the first to ferment and undergo putrefaction, and it 

 is precisely in these compounds that the greatest losses occur. 

 The soured residuums are less digestible than the fresh or than 

 the dried cossettes, provided the desiccation has been effected 

 at a sufficiently IOW T temperature to prevent the albuminoids 

 from becoming insoluble. As fermentation is a phenomenon 

 that removes from the forage a certain amount of fuel, which 

 means a reduction in its caloric power, it results in a smaller 

 nutritive equivalent. Among the active elements of this fer- 

 mentation may be mentioned acetic or butyric acid, which has, 

 as determined by Weiske, a nutritive equivalent which is very 

 small. They even occasion a decreased assimilation of nitrogen. 

 However, it has been noticed that the lactic acid causes a slight 

 increase in the amount of albuminoids deposited in the organ- 

 ism. In all cases these acids have a nutritive equivalent less 

 than carbohydrates, from which they are derived, and it is easy 

 to see that the cattle breeder loses very considerably from this 

 point of view if one considers that acids form more than 20 per 

 cent, of the dry substances of the siloed cossettes. Morgen, 

 however, finds 17.98 per cent, of acids, and the maximum 

 that he was ever able to discover was 28.98 per cent., calculated 

 on a basis of lactic acid. It is important to add to this the fact 

 that a portion of the albuminoids is transformed into amides, of 

 which the nutritive equivalent is less, and can, according to 

 Ku'hn, only be compared with carbohydrates in view of their 

 economizing the albumen consumption in the organism. 

 Finally, a portion of the albuminoids, according to Maercker 

 and Meyer, is completely destroyed during fermentation; they 

 are the most easily digested and they are the first, as previously 

 stated, to disappear, as they are more actively influenced by the 

 micro-organisms and consequently more readily fermented. 

 13 



