The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-03-03

wheat-drill-all the hoes down and
working-at the rate of two bushels
per acre. Nothing more can be done to
the crop till the latter part of August or
first of September, when it Is ready for
harvesting.
This is done with table-rake reaper,
rugged as for cutting wheat The reap
er is driven around the field as in cutting
wheat, and delivers the fodder in gavels
at the side. Eight men follow the ma
chine, arranged in four pairs, each hav-
ing, of course, one-fourth of the circuit
of the field for a &C station" and a light
two-legged corn "horse," like those in
common use for shocking corn. Each
pair, after taking its station, carries it's
horse" past two gavels, sets down the
horse" stands four gavels into the
four angles formed by the "horse" and
its cross-pin, brings the top of the shock
neatly together, and ties them with wool
Irvine, draws out the cross-pin and is
ready for another shock. For the eight
followers, the team, driver and machine
eight acres is fair days work. The
stalks themselves may be used for tying
the tops, but Irvine is found to be suffi-
GENTLY more expeditions to compensate
for the cost. Aften standing ten to fif-
teen days, till the fodder is nearlycured,
and is in tough ate, the shocks are
taken down, and each tied into four or
five sheaves or bundles, the stalks them
selves, in this condition, making excel
lent bands, and twelve or more bundles
made into a large shock, the tops being
secpred either with fodder bands or with
the twine used in the first instance. The
shocks stand in the field until they are
wanted for use.
Just here comes the most serious OBJ
lection to the feeding of fodder-corn.
There are times in the winter when both
weather and roads are bad; when a
deeply-plowed cOrn-feld is anything but
an agreeable road-bed for the hauling of
heavy loads, when the fodder itself is
wet, or covered with sleet, ice, or snow,
or its lower end perhaps tightly glued
to the ground by frost. But the fodder
is so charged with saccharine matter that
however cold the weather may be, there
is danger that if stored in bulk in NOW,
or even in stacks, it will ferment heat
and spoil. AT such times it is well to
have other feed under cover to depend
upon,
An experience covering three years,
and the growth of over 200 tons of fod-
der, seems to warrant fine following CON
illusions:
/. The fodder grows from five to
twelve feet in height, and averages
frem seven to nine feet, depending on
soils and seasons.
2. Fodder grown on land of good
average fertility stands better and
makes better feed than on soil too rich,
where the growth is too tall, rank and
coarse.
3. The proper time for cutting is be-
fore frost, of course, and when the lower
six or eight inches of the stalk assumes
a yellowish tinge. 1t is then ripe. If
cut sooner there is danger of its molding
in the shock; if later, the fiber is more
woody, and there is risk of frost.
4. 1t is vastly less dependent upon the
weather for its curing than hay. The
idea that fine weather is absolutely nee
essary for its curing, and the fear that
little rain would spoil all, was expressed
by others, and felt by myself at first, but
turned ont to be bugaboo." During
the cutting and curing of the two largest
crops, very rainy weather was encoun-
tered; yet not one.ffth of per cent. of
the fodder that stood in the shock, and
was kept from lying on the ground,
nodded. After it is well secured in the
small shocks neither rain nor frost seems
to damage it; as indeed they do not usu-
ally do the large fodder that has matured
corn.
5. A ton of bright fodder-corn is worth
more than three tons of corn fodder that
has matured grain, and as much as an
equal weight of good hay.
6. An average crop of fodder-corn on
good land is siT tons per acre.
z. 1t may be grown at cost-not in
Guiding interest on price of land, nor ex-
pense of carrying from the field to the
barn-including expense of preparing
the ground, seed, sowing, cutting, bind
ing and shocking of about $l,30 per ton.
A Baseball Club Mistaken for Band