CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FEEDING STUFFS 



61 



building silos in this country very large losses occurred in them, 

 due mainly to the form of silos built. These were square and 

 shallow structures which were poorly adapted for silage-making: 

 First, because considerable air was, left in the siloed mass and ad- 

 mitted from corners and leaky walls; and, second, because large 

 amounts of silage spoiled while being fed out. The losses in feed 

 materials found in the early silo experiments, therefore, would 

 often go up to fifty per cent, and such results were also generally 

 obtained in the cases where silage was made in pits or trenches in 

 the ground or in open stacks. In modern tall silos the losses of dry 

 matter have been greatly reduced, and under ordinary favorable 

 conditions will not amount to more than ten per cent. As in the 

 case of field-curing of corn, this loss falls primarily on the carbo- 

 hydrates and the protein substances, changing these in part into 

 organic acids and amides, respectively, so that the resulting silage" 

 is higher in fiber and lower in nitrogen-free extract than the ma- 

 terial from which it was made. The following average analyses 

 of green fodder corn and corn silage will illustrate this fact: 



There is a slight decrease in the percentage of protein in silage 

 as compared with fodder corn, but there is a further change in the 

 protein compounds during the siloing process which does not appear 

 from the average analyses given. Through the action of enzymes 

 and bacteria, a portion of the protein of the fodder corn undergoes 

 cleavage in the silo, and silage, therefore, contains a considerably 

 larger portion of non-protein or amide nitrogen than the green 

 corn (p. 11). The latter has been found to contain,' on the aver- 

 age, 27 per cent of amide nitrogen, against 40 per cent or over 

 in silage. 



Effect of Storage. — Changes in the chemical composition occur 

 in many feeding stuffs in storage. These are often quantitatively 

 too slight to appear in statements of chemical analyses, but still 

 are of considerable importance, as, e.g., in the ease of new and old 

 oats, corn, hay, etc. These and many other feeds lose moisture on 

 being stored; changes also occur in the composition of the dry 



