The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-12-31
CORN PITH EXPERIMENTS.
Important Tests as to IpS Value as
Cattle FOOd-AlSO Used for
WarShipS.

Prominent among the recent discoveries
which will be beneficial to agricultural
interests in this as well as other States is
the use OF the pith of the cornstalk as a
stock food. Ia the process of the extrac
ton Of the pith OF the blades and husk are
first removed and the stalks are cut up in
small pieces After the extraction OF the
pith from the stalk t. balances is ground
up into meal, which in general appearance
resembles coarse bran This ground ma
terial is termed the new corn product"
and ia the material which has formed the
basis Of series OF investigations conducted
at the Maryland Agricultural Experiment
Station.
The experiments conducted were Of two
kinds digestion experiments and the
determination of the quantity and the quail
ty Of the product as resulting from differ.
emit kinds Of feeding. These experiments
consisted in comparison OF the new corn
product with corn fodder when prepared
and fed in the most approved manner, and
also comparison of the results with COM
pounding different ratons from these feeds.
During the past few years there has been
considerable done in the way Of testing
methods for preparing corn fodder for feed
ing, with most OF the results in favor OF
some method of shreding the stalk. Shred
ding possesses many points which makes it
superior TO the ordinary or old way of cut
ting fodder, the principal one Of which is
that the shredded fodder is almost wholly
eaten by animals. This is largely due to
cut stalk and stalk nodes with their sharp
cutting edges. The absence Of these sharp
cutting edges prevents the mouths of the
| animals from becoming sore. The new
corn product contains l pounds per him.
bred more total digestble matter and Q
pounds per hundred more digestible pre-.
tein than the whole fodder shredded.
The following points were determined by
the experiments: That the new corn pro-
duct contains as much digestible matttr
per hundred as corn blades. The new corn
product contains 3 pounds per hundred
more total digestible matter and one.half
pound per hundred more digestibIe pro-
TEN than timothy hay. There was more
digestible matter in fattenng ratio
with the new corn product as a base than
when the same grain mixture was fed with
corn blades. Animals fed with fattening
ration with the new corn product base
made more gain in live light and upon
less feed than with a fattening ration Of
the same grain and corn blade. The
keeping qualities of the new corn product
are ss God as linseed meal, cottonseed
meal OF wheat bran.
In the testing OF the new com product
as a feed for horses it was found that it
was better digested by the horses than was
timothy hay.
One OF the prominent uses to which this
material has been put is in the coustrnc-
tiou OF naval vessels The Navy depart
.nrhs'osf,,h limited States Government has |
conducted extensive experiments with
corn pith for u,e in vessels, and the results |
have been So satisfactory THAT it has been
adopted ane specified for use i'll the con-
struction OF all new vessels. It's ability t"
absorb great quantities of water and thus
rapidly fill n hole il Que Of the chief reasons
for its use.