BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 151 
in our agricultural papers, whether fodder-corn has merit enough to 
warrant the growing of it; and in general it may be said that the 
title of this kind of forage to consideration and esteem, has been often 
and vigorously debated by American farmers. The truth of the 
matter is, that fodder-corn is an extremely valuable food, that needs 
only to be used understandingly in order that it shall commend itself. 
When cut sufficiently young, fodder-corn contains a tolerably large 
proportion of albuminoids; and there is doubtless some one particular 
stage in the development of the maize plant at which it is fit to be 
fed to milch cows by itself, without any addition: but when allowed to 
pass this stage or to approach maturity, as when it is grown to be 
cured for winter forage, fodder-corn is found to contain only a com- 
paratively small proportion of albuminoids, and consequently needs to 
be supplemented by some more highly nitrogenized food, in order that 
it may be used to the best chemical advantage. The composition of 
mature fodder-corn has been carefully studied by Professor Johnson, 
of New Haven, whose conclusions in respect to its great value will be 
found very clearly set forth in a recent number of the “ American 
Journal of Science,” March 1877, p. 202. : 
In fodder-corn of two varieties “harvested at a time when the 
plants had an average height of ten to twelve feet, and contained a 
good many imperfectly developed ears, some of them with nearly ripe 
kernels,” Johnson found the proportion of albuminoids to carbohy- 
drates as 1 to 8 @ 11, very nearly. Wolff, in his tables, gives the 
ratio 1 to 9 @ 10 for fodder-corn; and for maize straw, 7. e., stalks 
and leaves of ripe plants from which grain has been gathered, he 
gives the ratio 1 to 13. In samples of green fodder-corn, collected in 
Germany just before flowering, ratios of 1 to 8} and 1 to 43, have 
been noticed; and, in a German sample cut in full blossom, the ratio 
was 1 to 7}.* 
An interesting practical point to be decided in connection with the 
use of fodder-corn is, whether the vines of peas or beans or vetches 
might not be grown with advantage, even at the North, for the express 
purpose of supplying those chemical constituents which the fodder-corn 
lacks. ‘The comparative difficulty of curing the young vines of legu- 
minous plants, without waste or deterioration, is, of course, an objec- 
* Werner’s “ Handbuch des Futterbaues,” Berlin, 1875, p. 602, and Dietrich 
and Keenig’s “ Zusammensetzung der Futterstoffe,” Berlin, 1874, p. 4. 
