4 BULLETIN 953, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The following year, in a somewhat similar experiment, the same 

 authors (13) find a loss of 18 per cent of the dry matter, 11 per cent 

 of the albuminoids, and 26.5 per cent of the sugars and starch of the 

 green maize during ensiling. 



Two years later Hills (14) reports a repetition of the investigation 

 of the comparative losses in maize silage and maize fodder and gives 

 a more detailed chemical report. He states that he found losses in the 

 total amounts of the different constituents of the maize from harvest- 

 ing to feeding to be as follows : Dry matter, 20 per cent ; crude pro- 

 tein, 12 per cent ; crude fiber, 5 per cent ; nitrogen-free extract, 30 per 

 cent ; ether extract, 16 per cent ; and a gain of 3 per cent in crude ash. 



The director of the New York Experiment Station (15) at Geneva 

 reports investigations extending over a period of three years, during 

 which nine bags of green maize and seven bags of green sorghum 

 were buried in a silo 14 by 15 by 30 feet. The bags weighed 50 pounds 

 each at ensiling and, except for one bag of sorghum, were buried in 

 sets of three, one bag at the center and the other two within a foot of 

 opposite walls of the silo. The combined results of the 16 bags show 

 during ensiling the following changes, which are based on the total 

 amounts of each constituent of the maize ensiled : Losses — water, 3.9 

 per cent ; ash, 0.4 per cent ; albuminoids, 18.5 per cent ; crude fiber, 9.8 

 per cent; nitrogen-free extract, 15.1 per cent; albuminoid nitrogen, 

 18.7 per cent ; sugars and starch, 26.6 per cent ; and dry matter, 12.6 

 per cent; grains — crude fat, 45.4 per cent; and amide nitrogen, 3.7 

 per cent. 



Clements and Eussell (16) state that they ensiled green maize in a 

 round silo 12 feet in diameter and 17 feet high and examined the 

 silage a few days and also three weeks after ensiling. Their tables 

 show a loss in protein nitrogen and a gain in amide nitrogen, also a 

 slight gain in fiber and in furfurol, and they seem to indicate no trace 

 of sugars remaining even after a few days' ensiling. 



Eussell (17) gives a summary of the investigations undertaken with 

 maize silage over a period of five years at the South-Eastern Agricul- 

 tural College, Wye, England. He concludes that the characteristic 

 silage changes are the disappearing of sugar, of some of the less 

 resistant cellulose, and of a part of the protein. 



Annett and Eussell (18), in a very interesting paper published 

 in the Journal of Agricultural Science in 1908, give a discussion 

 of various phases of silage investigation undertaken at the South- 

 Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, England. They discuss quite 

 thoroughly the losses and changes in the silo. Each year the in- 

 vestigators buried in a 12 by 17 foot round stave silo several sacka 

 of from 10 to 15 kilos of fine-cut com at different depths, and 

 analyzed the maize when put in and when taken out of the silo. 



