The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-08-23
Saving Corn Fodder.

saving corn fodder in the south. The
southern method, as is generally
known, is to strip the blades off below
the ear, and top the stalk, blades and
all, above the ear--in other words, cut
off the upper story" Of the stalk and
let the 'basemenG' and the ear stand
in the field
Now there is nothing that teaches us
quite as thoroughly as 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 a dairy farm
and outfit cOmplete-forty good cows,
plenty of good we'll water, besides con-
nection with the city wate1worl1s-
and started in to make lots of milk.
AS matter 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 manure in drills a little
less than four feet apart, and drilled
in corn, which was Trimmed to about
one stalk in twelve inches, or about
one foot apart. The corn grew more
than twelve fest tall, every stalk of it.
We fed all we could of it green, and
cut the remainder up, and "stoolzed"
it up in the field, where it remained a
long time, until I was sure it was
thoroughly dried out. Then we hauled
it and riclzed it up. The result was a
large lot of spoiled corn fodder.
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-
clusion, after that, to be content with
taking off the top six or eight feet of
the stalk. In other words, I 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 it as the lower end Of a cornstalk,
unless it is some Of the milk we get in
this city. The southern cOrnstallz can
not be cured SO as to 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 it also
gives him a 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
ly astonishing. I visited one farm
year or two since, upon which was one
continuous field of corn, of about 600
acres. The soil was rich, dark loan,
and in July it had attained it's full
growth. The corn ears were higher
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 we'll bladed
with broad, long blades of fod-
der. The lower portion of the stalk,
however, was in perpetual 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 as it knows how to shine
in the "Sunny South, the lamp of the
''fre-fy'' Qightning-bug) was plainly
seen, in the perpetual twilight near
the base of the stalk. Such a large
stalk, however, is not profta BILE in pro-
portion to size.
By judicious selection many farmers
have been able to get as large an ear
from smaller stalk. The trucker for
-