News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-09-21
care of the Corn Crop.

Every year sees more and more
corn planted in this part of Vermont.
An acre of corn will, on an average,
winter more than twice as much
stock as an acre of grass. And when
hay sells as high as it sold last
spring, it sets farmers to thinking
about depending less on hay and
more on corn. Any information
about the corn crop is eagerly sought
after by farmers, and the State EX-
pertinent Station has wisely expend-
ed much time and care upon the corn
problem. The Bulletin of the Sta
ton, printed in the NEWS AND CITIZEN
of Sept. Z, is one of the most valu-
able papers ever issued by any ex-
pertinent station, and should be care
fully studied by every farmer. One
fact should be noted, this is not the
report of an experiment which has
never been tried before, but it is the
most thorough and complete of a
number of trials which have been made
by the Vermont station, and also by
the Wisconsin and some other sta
tions. All these trials show the same
result, namely, that the best way to
care for the corn crop is to put it into
the silo. There is no question about
this, and the farmer who opposes the
silO is opposing one of the greatest
and best of modern farm improve
ments.
Those farmers who stock their
corn, then husk and grind the corn
and feed the meal with the stalks
should ponder on the results of this
experiment; also those who pick off
the ears from their corn and then
pnt the stalks into the silo. The two
methods were compared with ensi-
lage and the results are surprising.
In the sixth annual Report of the
station the results are given more in
detail. On page 175 is a table Civ
ing The number of pounds of Butter
produced by one acre of corn pre-
served in each of four ways. l have
figured out the cash value of the
butter at twenty-five cents per pound,
with the following results: an acre
of corn put into the silo produced
$99.50 worth of butter; put into
large stocks and fed without husk-
ing, as corn fodder, an acre produced
500 worth; when the corn was pick
ed, dried, ground and fed with the
husks and the stalks, which had been
put into the silo, the value of the
butter produced by one acre was
STOPS; while an acre treated in the
old-fashioned way of husking and
grinding the corn and feeding it with
the dried stalks, produced $40 worth
of butter, the same quality of other
feed being used in each case. In
other words, an acre of corn put into
the silo produced $40 worth more
of butter than an acre husked and
ground, and $3.50 worth more than
an acre of corn fodder preserved in
most careful manner.
1t is no longer a question whether
q farmer can afford to build a silo,
he cannot afford to be without one
1t does not pay to husk corn. Home
grown corn and cob meal, or clear
meal, is too costly luxury for ordi-
nary farmers. The experiments prove
that husking and then drying and
grinding decreases the digestlbility
to a considerable extent, so that the
labor and expense of husking, dry
ing and grinding only serve to lessen
the value of the corn. The unhusked
corn fodder or the whole ensilage are
by far the most economical in every
respect. The rats and mice are apt
to get large share of the ears of
fodder corn, so that the sio is the
best place for the corn crop.