Connecticut western news., 1884-07-09
Corn Fodder.

Tt has been demonstrated that seed corn for fodder gives best results when drilled in with sufficient space between the rows for running a cultivator. A practical question, not quite so satisrac- torily answered, is whether the fodder shall grow so thickly in the fuIrow as to prevent the formation of ears, or whether it shall be grown thin enough to obtain well-formed ears. There are two sides to this question. Thick plant ing makes more fodder, but it is liable to lodge, and in quality is hardly equal to fodder that has stood thin enough to get the effects of ample sunlight and ventilation. When the ears are per mitted to form there is enough grain mixed with me chopped stalks to do away with the addition of meal.
 Planting in drills about three feet apart, with say ten kernels dropped per foot, has brought satisfactory results in past seasons. A rule among some of our most successful farmers is one and half bushels. of seed corn to the acre for fod- der.
 Fodder for early feeding must be planted early, of course. An excellent plan is to seed at intervals Of ten days from about the first or middle of June on to July, so as to furnish succession of cuttings. Corn fodder when two feet high, fed green, provides a capital material for tiding over the season b % tween the parching up of grass in July until fall rains have revived the pastures.
 To produce a profitable yield, the plants ought to be cultivated two or three times; the soil must be kept well stirred and the weeds down.
 Farmers are not of one mind as to the precise stage wben corn fodder is best harvested. If cut too early it has not a sufficient amount of the albuminoids, sugar and starch, to mako 1t nutritive and loses much weight in drying be- cause of the excess of water iA it. If cut too late, on the other hand, the eel lulose, which for the most part is digest ible, is changed into crude fibre, which is mostly indigestible, and the external layer or epidermis of the stalk that oth- erwise would be soft and easily mastica- ted becomes glazed and is thereby ren. dered not only indigestible but injurious to the mucous membrane of the alimen- tary canal. The opinion that corn fodder for drying should be cut just as the corn is beginning to develop in tho tassel is gaining ground and probably the largest number of cultivators har- vest their crops at this stage.
 Most farmers prefer to cut fodder corn previous to frost, at whatever stage of growth it may chance to be. There are, however, occasional cultivators who con. tend that if the corn be cut immediately after a frost but little, if any, harm will be done.
 Where corn fodder is grown in large areas it is often cut with a reaping ma. chine and gathered like hay with steel tooth rake. Corn fodder is often left out in the shock. When this is done the stacks are best made medium to small size, with the middles kept high, so as to turn off water.
 Farmers who have had little or no ex. perience in curing fodder will do we'll tc cut their crops during settled weather, allow it to dry a day or two previous tc binding it in small bundles and expose these in turn to drying influences before setting up stock or storing elsewhere.