Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-06-11
ENsILAeE CORN.
The Influence Of Variety and or Rate OF
Seeding the Yield.

Seeding on the Yield.
In bulletin reporting results Of ex-
periments made at the Pennsylvania
State College Experiment station. the
following information is given.
I'm the early days Of ensilage, thick
seeding and early harvesting were the
rule. Later, when it was pointed out
that the amount Of dry matter contained
In crop of corn increased very rapidly
as the crop matured, a reaction against
this practice set in, and at present the
general drift Of opinion is in favor Of
thin seeding and Of allowing the crop to
become as mature as possible. Some
authorities indeed, say that the crop
should be grown exactly like d crop Of
field corn Fully matured corn, how
ever, is not well adapted for ensilage.
since a certain degree Of succulence is
required to cause the material to settle
and pack properly in the silo. With any
given variety Of corn. on the other hand,
it has been shown that, if we harvest be-
fore the crop reaches full maturity. we
sacrifice a considerable amount Of dry
matter which would otherwise have been
produced In case it is desired to har-
vest corn while still somewhat imma-
turer two methods suggest themselves
for counteracting this loss, namely, thick
er seeding and the use Of large growing
varieties.
There is no doubt whatever that a
greater gross yield can be secured in
either Of these ways or by a combination
Of the two It is claimed, however, that
this larger gross yield win contain 50
much smaller proportion Of real food
that there will be no actual gain Of food,
but only Of ''wood and water" This,
however, has been largely matter Of
opinion. 1t has been shown by numer-
Gus experiments that thick seeding
within moderate limits, enables us to
\ produce more dry matter per acre. The
digestibility Of this dry matter, however,
that is its content Of real food, has not
\ hitherto been determined The expert
ments described below were designed to
contribute some exact knowledge upon
this point.
4 The plan was to grow the dent variety
used here as q field crop, and also large
\ variety which does not ordinarily ma
ture here, to seed both varieties at two
different rates and to harvest them when
they were considered fit for ensilage. 1t
was further attempted to determine the
actual yield Of digestible matter Der
acre by weighing the yield and deter
mining its digestibility by sheep. BY d
most unfortunate misunderstanding,
however, the different plats received IN
equal amounts Of fertilizer, the thick
seeded plats receiving most It is not
thought that this error greatly affects
the results, but the conclusions now To
be stated must be understood as subject
to possible error on this account. Sub
\ ject to this qualification the following
conclusions were reached
\ The thick seeded corn reached nearly
4 the same stage Of maturity as the thin
+ seeded Under these conditions, the use
Of twenty quarts Of seed per acre gave
\ an average yield of Al per cent. more dry
matter than was obtained by the use Of
six ard one-half quarts Ter acrn T1ae
\ dry matter Of the thick seeded corn was,
\ on the average Of both varieties, 5l pei
cent. more digestible than that Of the
thin seeded corn. The thick seeded corn
produced, on the average Of the two va
rietIes, Az per cent. more digestible food
per acre than the thin seeded corn. The
larger variety did not become a. mature
as the smaller, but contained fair pro
portion Of ears The larger variety pro
/ duced, on the average of the two rates
Of seeding, 43 per cent. more dry matter
Y per acre than the smaller variety. The
dry matter Of the larger variety was, on
\ the average Of the two rates Of seeding,
A 81 per cent. more digestible than that Of
4 the smaller variety The larger variety
I produced, on the average Of the two rates
/ Of seeding. AZ per cent. more digestible
4 food per acre than did the smaller va
riety. In general the results Of this
single experiment are strongly in favor
4 Of thicker seeding Of ensilage corn than
is generally recommended and Of the use
Of rather large growing varieties even
when these do not fully mature