The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-08-10
FARMER AND PLANTER,
SAVING CORN FODDER.

| have carefully noted recent CORE
spondence Ia regard to the manner OF
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 EASEMENT 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 1 bought dairy farm
and outfit complete-forty good cows,
plenty of good well water, besides con-
nection with the city water-works-
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 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 up, and stocked
it up in the field, where it remained
long time, until l was sure it was
thoroughly dried out. Then we hauled
it and ricl1ed it up. The result was
large lot of spoiled corn fodder.
| There is too much water in the south
ern cornstalk to cure it; and 1t is so
large and woody, that it is rejected by
anything with less digestion than an
ensilage cutter, and I 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, l 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 cornstallz,
unless it is some of the milk we get in
this city. The southern cornstalk can
not be cured so as to stand storage.
Therefore the farmer has dropped into
the habit of topping" above, and
''bladipg" below the ear. 1t is true
this gives him extra work, but it also
gives him 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. 1 visited one farm a
year or two since, upon which was one
continuous field of corn, of about GOO
acres. The soil was a rich, dark loan,
and in July it had attained its full
growth The corn ears were higher
than our heads, and in fact many Oh
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 perpetual twilight, the
suns rays not being able to penetrate
within four feet of the ground. In
such fields at midday, when the sur
was shining as it knows how to shine
in the Sunny South" the lamp of the
''fire-fy" lightning bug) was plainly
seen, in the perpetual twilight neal
the base of the stalk. Such large
stalk, however, is not profitable in pro
portion to size.
By judicious selection many farmers
have been able to get as large an cal
from smaller stalk. The trucker fol
example, who puts in a crop of corr
in June, after potatoes have beer
dug, uses a variety that reaches &
height of about eight feet, and cuts i
all up close to the ground, but the regu
lar field corn of the south, which il
this vicinity, reaches such a larg,
growth of stalk, is not considered O
any value below the ear. We have in
dividual farmers here, who annually
plant from 500 to 1000 acres in corn
and who never save one per cent. o
either ''blade" or "stall"-it all goes t,
waste, except such good as the sam,
may do the soil by being plowed under
in preparing the ground for the mex
crop. | was shown one field of corr
last season, upon which twenty-sevel
annual crops of corn had been grown il
twenty-eight years.
There are many things about south
ern farming that can and should b
remedied; but cutting the corn-stall
off above the ear, where corn is lively
feet or more in length, is not the wors
mistake farmer can make. If som
genius will get up corn that will
make six-foot stalk and a two-foo
ear, he can find customers for tina
same corn down this way. BY tn
way, we have a find stand of cor
this year. We were nearly fou
inches behind in our usual rain
fall, until the last forty-eight hours
during which time we have bee
favored with a liberal supply, tina
puts the ground in frst-class shape
Our corn field were never cleaner tina
now. AS fast as the present true
crops are taken off, other crops are pu
in, among which will be large areas @
"ninety-day corn"-corn that will ma
ture in ninety days.-Farmers' HON