118 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



tbe impressed ensilage in a jar, and as inncli as 59.8 per cent, in that 

 compressed in open silo. Tbe latter high percentage is doubtless dne 

 to tbe carrying away in tbe expressed juice of much soluble nitrogenous 

 substance. We have but few quantitative data in regard to maize, but 

 have found that in the samples of ensilage which have been examined 

 there is a comparatively large amount of ammonia combined with the 

 acids produced by fermentation, acetic and lactic, which, of course, is 

 lost in drying specimens for analysis. This produces in the result an 

 apparent loss of nitrogen in the ensilage itself. It is at any rate a loss 

 of nitrogen of nutritive value. A quantitative determination of the am- 

 monia salts in one specimen of ensilage (Serial No. 1693) gave the fol- 

 lowing results : 



Weight of ensilage taken 4,000. 



Equivalent to dry substance 620. 



Weight of NH 4 C1 obtained 8. 660 



Equivalent to nitrogen g. 266 



Per cent, of nitrogen from dry substance . 366 



Per cent, of albuminoids equivalent 2. 287 



That the nitrogen was in the form of ammonia, and not a more com- 

 plex amide, was proved by the following analysis : 



Weight of ammonia salt taken 1000 



Weight of double platinum salt found 4105 



Equivalent to NH 4 C1 0990 



This ammonia salt, probably acetate, would be lost in the process of 

 drying, and produce a corresponding deficit in the relative percentage 

 of nitrogen in the analysis. In fact, 2.29 per cent, of albuminoid in 

 the dry substance of an average maize stalk containing 7.50 per cent, 

 amounts to a little more than 30 per cent, of the total nitrogenous sub- 

 stances of the plant, and about the loss which Kellner found in his ex- 

 periments with mangold leaves not under pressure. 



The remaining non-albuminoid nitrogen is probably largely of an amide 

 nature, as we have found, like Kellner, very small amounts of peptone 

 bodies. Attempts, however, to separate any amides in a crystalline con- 

 dition have resulted in obtaining only a sirupy nitrogenous substance. 



The loss of nitrogenous substance from conversion to ammonia salts 

 and decomposition in drying is relatively compensated by the large loss 

 of carbhydrates, so that in the figures of analyses neither loss is promi- 

 nent and the result is at first glance deceptive. The control, of course, 

 lies only in an absolute knowledge of the weight lost by the fodder in 

 the silo or the relative increase in one of the constituents which is less 

 liable to change— as, for instance, the ash. But, as Kellner has shown, 

 pressure is very liable to remove the soluble part of the ash on the juice 

 expressed, and thus entire dependence cannot be placed on this ele- 

 ment. At the New Jersey Experiment Station in 1881 an interesting 

 experiment was carried on, in which the ash served as a basis for calcu- 

 lation without apparently largely vitiating the results. The results 

 were published in the Annual Beport of this Department for 1881-'S2, 

 p. 572. 



The loss in this case was seen to fall upon the carbhydrates entirely, 

 and to be as great for the dry fodder as for the ensilage. There is an 

 apparent slight increase in albuminoids, which can be explained by the 

 fact that the calculation is made as if no ash had been lost by being 

 dissolved away or expressed in the two preserved samples. The ex- 

 periment is remarkable as showing that in this case, quite at variance 

 with other instances, the nitrogen suffered little or no loss, and that in 

 fact the whole loss fell upon the carbhydrates. This may be due some- 

 what to the length of time during which the maize was in the silo, as 



