362 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. VIII, No. to 
by the plant cell and its enzyms and that the changes caused by bac¬ 
teria were secondary and nonessential. Esten and Mason (6) found 
such large numbers of bacteria and yeasts in silage that they considered 
them the only important factors concerned. Hunter and Bushnell (10) 
recently found large numbers of the Bacterium bulgaricus group in 
silage and considered their activities very important. All the work 
mentioned above has been done with silage made from the corn plant 
(Zea mays), which is the chief silage crop in this country. 
Investigators in plant physiology have found evidence of the evolu¬ 
tion of carbon dioxid and the formation of alcohol under aseptic con¬ 
ditions in the tissues of many plants, including maize. The distinction 
as to whether this is due to the action of enzyms within the cells or to 
respiratory activities of the cell protoplasm is not made; but similar 
respiratory changes appear to be common to the majority of plants, 
especially in their seeds. It has been suggested that the respiration 
of plants under anaerobic conditions is identical with alcoholic fermen¬ 
tation. In many cases some of the alcohol is further oxidized or other¬ 
wise changed, but the ratio of carbon dioxid to alcohol is often found to 
be comparable to that of ordinary alcoholic fermentation by the zymase 
of yeast. Of course, anaerobic conditions obtain in the silo after the first 
few hours. Dorof^jew (4) found that the respiration of injured leaves 
was accelerated. This may have some significance in connection with 
the chopping of corn before it is ensiled. Zaleski and Reinhard (27) 
and others have noticed similar effects in wounded vegetable tissues. 
With various seeds placed under anaerobic conditions Godlewski and 
Polzeniusz (7), Stoklasa et al. (20, 21), Minenkoff (13), and a number of 
others have found that alcohol and carbon dioxid are produced. Similar 
results have been obtained by others with other plant tissues than the 
seeds. Although Maz6 and Perrier (12) have questioned the results of 
Stoklasa, it is still possible that such respiratory activities play a part 
in the formation of silage. 
Certain enzyms have been shown to be present in corn grain. A 
proteoclastic enzym has been found by Vines (24) and likewise by 
Scheunert and Grimmer (18), who found an amylase also present. Sig¬ 
mund (23) found a lipase in both the resting and germinating seeds 
of maize. Price (15) demonstrated the presence of a peroxidase, a 
catalase, a protease, an invertase, and a glucosidase in cornstalks. 
White (26) found proteoclastic and amyloclastic enzyms in maize seeds, 
which retained their activity in seeds 20 years old. 
t STATEMENT OF PROBLEM 
A sharp differentiation between the activities of enzyms and micro¬ 
organisms in a given medium is practically impossible. Both are sus¬ 
ceptible to injury and destruction by heat and are more or less similarly 
subject to the inhibitive effect of our common antiseptics. Moreover, 
