The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-09-18
INCUBATION NOT
ESSENTIAL FOR s|LAGE
STATEMENTS IN
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN"
CORRECTED

In a recent issue of the Country
Gentleman there appeared an article
entitled "Bone-Dry Silage", which
has caused a number of farmers tc
inquire of the Experiment Station
for cultures of Tactic acid bacteria. In
order to clear up some of the mis-
leading statements contained in the
above mentioned article, the follow
ing statements are given:
No doubt the gentleman from Utah
secured an excellent silage by using
mature corn and inoculating with lac
tic acid bacteria. They would have
secured excellent results without the
incubation, for Investigators have
shown that mature corn properly
sliced produces a silage which con-
tains an enormous number of these
same Tactic acid bacteria. They are
everywhere present and, because of
their rapid development, account for
the preponderance of Tactic acid
found in every silage that has been
properly sliced. Their food is the
soluable sugar and, possibly, some
the soluable sugar and, possibly, some
starch, and whether the material is
lnoculated with a culture of Tactic
acid bacteria, or whether the spon-
taneous incubation is allowed to take
place, there is always a certain loss
of sugar and starch, because, from
these substances, Tactic acid is form
ed.
The article "Bone-Dry Silage"
would lead the reader to suppose that
every iota of food value is saved by
of high-producing cows only, without
this so-called new method, for they
state "The starch and sugar were all |
there, as intact as when the corn had |
been put up. We were holding the
full feed values fthe material just
the same as if it had been fed in the
field, instead of letting two-thirds of
it get away in the shape of alcohol,
which has no food value whatever"
Now, the sugar and starch were not
Ill there, for some had been changed
nto lacti cacid by their method just
he same as in the ordinary process
# silage making.
AS to the 'stwo-thirds of the food
1alue getting away in the form of !
lcohol", the writer need not say that |
his is absurd In many tests for
lcohol in silage, made by the writer, i
nd from data furnished by others,
he highest percent of alcohol found
vas a of one percent on the wet
asis. The writer is dealing with !
God normal silage and not with !
bnormal The statement, "The sill I
ge under the new process was worth
lilly so per cent more in food value /
nan any corn silage they had ever !
3D." may be true in their case, but :
ne original silage made by them :
lust have been very poor. Certainly y
xperimental data collected on two .
lagos, one inoculated and one pre- Il
AIRED without inoculating, put up Il
1der identical conditions would not 2
low this radical difference in actual s
od value. s
If the usual conditions of prepar- :
g corn for silage are followed, it !.
useless to inoculate with Tactic acid U
lcteria, for they are already pres ~
it, and will develop into the pre- III
organism. H
The farmer is urged to follow the ~
ndings secured in Government and ~
ate Experimental Stations and not S
opt methods written by popular 9
riters who are doubtless less famil- y!
r with the subjects than specialists. III
In silage making the only precau- IN
ms necessary to follow are these: ~
: tight silos, corn in the right state 81
maturity, the proper amount of Sff
DISTURB, and carefulness in filling. 1F
In