Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-08-04
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD
Corn Fodder.


II 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 satisfac-
torily answered, is whether the fodder
shall grow so thickly in the fdrrow as TO
present the formation of ears or whether
it shall be grown thin enough TO obtain
we'll formed cars. There are two sides
10 this question. Thick planting makes
more fodder, but it is liable to lodge and
in quality is hardly equal 10 fodder that
has stood thin enough TO get the effects
Of ample sunlight and ventilation. When
the ears are permitted to form there is
enough grain mixed with the 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 a succession of
cuttings. Corn fodder when two feet
high, fed green, provides a capital ma
5erial for tiding over the season between
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 when corn fodder Is best
harvested. If cut too early it has not a
sufficient amount of the albuminoids,
sugar and starch, to make it nutritive,
and loses much weight in drying because
Of the excess of water in it. If cut too
late, on the other hand, the celluiose,
which for the most part is digestible, is
changed into crude fiber, which is mostly
indigestible, and the external layer or
epidermis of the stalk that otherwise
would be soft and easily masticated be
comes glazed and is thereby rendered not
only indigestible but injurious to the
mucous membrane of the alimentary
canal. The opinion that corn fodder for
drying should be cut just as the corn is
beginning to develop in the tassel is
gaining ground, and probably the largest
number of cultivators harvest 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 little 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 ike hay with "a 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 well
to cut their crops during settled weather,
allow it to dry a day or two previous to
binding it in small bundles, and expose
hese in turn to drying influences be
fore setting up in stock or storing else
where. -Ne1o York World.