St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1893-09-16
FARMER ANDPLANTER

'FAt.R!MERAND.PLANTER
= SAVING coRN FODDER.
TAs Southern Meshoa Weeks Best. VITA
tr soethern-SsrewsC Corr. -
Ihave carefully noted recent CORE
spondence in regard to the manner Of
saving corn fodder in the south. The
southern method. rs is generally
known. is to strip the blades on below
the ear. and top the stalk. blades and
all. above the ear-in other words, cut
OF the upper story of the stalk and
let the basement" and the ear stand
in the field.
Now there is nothing that teaches us
quite rs thoroughly Is experience.
Somewhere about thirteen years ago
violated the traditional utterance OF
Mr.. Greeley and went south instead
of west. Milk was ten cents per
quart, and I bought . dairy farm
and catit complete-forty good cows,
plenty Of good veil water, besides con.
nection with the city water-worlss-
and started in to make lots of milk.
As q natter of course, COWS that gave
ten-cent milk had TO have plenty of fill-
ing, and We set to work to supply it.
We put stable mature III drills . little
less Than four feet apart. and drilled
in corn. which was thinned to about
one stalk in twelve inches, or about
one foot apart. The corn grew more
than twelve feet tall, every stalk of it.
We fed all we could of it green, and
cut the remainder mp. and stocked,
il mp In the field, where il remained a
long time, until I was sure it was
thoroughly dried out Then we hauled
It and riclked it mp. The result was .
large lot e spdled corn fbdder.
There is too much water in the south
ern cornstalk to cure it; and it is SO
large and woody. that it Is rejected by
anything with less digestion than an
ensilaGe cutter. and came to the con-
clpsion. after that, to Be content with
taking Oh the top six or eight feet Of
the stalk. In other words. ] fell in
with the customs Of the country as
gracefully as possible. There is moth
ing on the farm that has SO much water
in il as the lower end Of = cornstalk,
unless il is some Of the milk we get in
this city. The southern cornstalk can
not be cured 20 as 10 stand storage.
Therefore the farmer has dropped into
the habit of topping" above, and
''blading' below the ear. 1t is true
this gives him extra work, but il also
gives him q most excellent quality Of
fodder.
The size to which southern corn at
tains, under favorable circumstances,
Is almost past belief The growth Of
corn on the lands bordering on the
great Dismal swamp is something real
" astonishing. I visited one farm a
year or two since, upon which was one
continuous field of corn. Of about coo
acres. The soil was rich, dark loan,
and in July IL had attained its full
than our heads, and in fact many Of
the ears were too high to hang hat
on, and the stalks were so tall that
the tops could not be reached by
am umbrella held BY the out
stretched arm All these stalks
from top to bottom were well bladed
with broad, long blades Of fod-
der. The lower portion of the stalk.
however. was in perpetpa I twilight, the
suns rays not being able TO penetrate
within four feet of the ground. In
such fields at midday, when. the sun
was shining rs it knows how to shine
in the Sunny South" the lamp of the
''fire-hy" Oightning-bug) was plainly
seen, in the perpetual twilight near
the base of the stalk. Such q large
stalk, however. is not profitable in pro
portion 70 size.
BY judicious selection many farmers
have been able to get rs large an ear
from smaller stalk. The trucker for
example, who puts in crop of corn
in June. after potatoes have been
dug, uses 4 variety that reaches a
height Of about eight feet, and cuts IL
all mp close to the ground. but the regu-
lar field corn of the south. which in
this vicinity. reaches such. large
growth Of stalk, is not considered Of
any-value below the ear. We have in.
divilual farmers here, who annually
plant from 500 to 1.200 acres in corn,
and who never save one per cent Of
either .sblade" or '.stalk"-it all goes I'd
waste. except such good rs the same
may do the soil by being plowed under,
in preparing the ground for the next
crop. I was shown one field of corn
last season. upon which tweuty-seven
annual crops of corn had been grown in
twenty-eight years.
There are many things about south.
ern farming that can and should be
remedied: but cutting the corn-stalk
of above the ear, where corn is twelve
feet or more in length, is not the werst
mistake a farmer can make. If some
genius will get up corn that will
make q six-foot stalk and two-foot
ear, he can find customers for that
same corn down this way. BY the
way, we have = find stand of corn
this year. We were nearly four
inches behind in our usual rain
fall, until the last forty-eight hours,
during which time we have been
favored with . liberal supply, that
puts the ground in first-class shape.
Our corn field were never cleaner than
now. As fast as the present truck
crops are taken on, other crops are put
in, among which will be large areas OF
.'ninety-day corn"-corn that will ma
ture in ninety dayS-Farmers' Home
Journal.
FEEDING PIGS.