26 MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



aid in solving the problems in animal nutrition which now most 

 urgently demand consideration. 



There is an increasing need for a more intimate study of the 

 properties of the individual compounds of cattle foods and their 

 relation to nutritive processes. 



Nevertheless, analyses of the foods involved in experimental 

 work even by our confessedly unsatisfactory methods, are both 

 necessary and useful, because they disclose certain facts which are 

 fundamental conditions, and a knowledge of which is essential to 

 successful plans and to any well grounded conclusions. 



The analyses herewith reported have nearly all been occasioned 

 by experimental work either in studying crop production or along 

 the line of animal nutrition. However, some attempt has been 

 made to step outside the beaten path by endeavoring to ascertain 

 the amount present of those carbohydrates whose properties and 

 functions are to a large degree understood. Certain sugars and 

 the starchs are among our best known vegetable compounds, not 

 only as to their constitution but also as to their offices in the animal 

 body. We have every reason to regard them as the most valuable 

 of the nutrients usually classed under the term "nitrogen-free- 

 extract," and it is reasonable to believe that the nutritive value of 

 this nitrogen-free-extract varies materially according as it contains 

 largely such compounds as sucrose, glucose and starch, which are 

 entirely digestible and directly useful, or is almost wholly made up 

 of bodies of which we have scanty knowledge, the little we do 

 know not being favorable to their efficiency as food. Therefore in 

 the experiments which this Station has made with the corn crop, 

 not only have the regular analyses been performed, but the 

 amounts of sugars and starch have been ascertained as closely as 

 existing methods would allow. 



THE COMPOSITION OF FODDERS AND SILAGE FROM THE CORN (MAIZE) 



PLANT. 



The analyses which appear below have been made during the 

 past three years in connection with experiments in the value of the 

 corn plant as a source of cattle food. They have been necessary 

 in order to know the amount and general character of the dry mat- 

 ter pi'oduced, and have been required in the digestion and feeding 

 experiments. 



