The Portland daily press., 1894-01-17
coRNcoss FOR CATTLE FOOD.
Opinions Expressed by Several Authorities
on This Ever Recurring Subject.

Opinions Expressed by Several Authorities
on This Ever Recurring Subject.
Professors Stewart, Wolf and others
give the assurance that there is nutri
ton in cerncobs, but a writer to The
Country Gentleman contends that,
while this is true, it doesn't pay to feed
corncobs. Here is his argument:
The chemists in their laboratories
may be able to extract the nutrients
from cobs, for they have the command
Of implements and acids that will dis
solve hard substances, which the gastric
juice i'll cattles' stomachs is unable tc
accomplish. Take cob and try whit
Ting it with knife; you will find
that on each side of the cavities where
the kernels stood, extending to the
pith, it is full of small, thin plates hard
as a hemlock knot. These plates COM
pose the greater portion Of the cob, and
no mill ever ground them fine, and no
animals stomach ever digested them.
Examine the dung of animals fed on
cobmeal, and you will see these hard
sharp plates are there, still as hard and
as oiAetA l. eso NfNis II 40 AAoU CeA'J " W.
lieve that such tough, stubborn sub
stances can pass through the long tor
tuous route of the intestines without
producing irritation, if not laceration
and diarrhea.
Professor Sanborn says, "Close OBJ
servation of finely ground cobmeal con-
vinces me that it has a very high feed
i7,or fho+
has very little value" He is speaking
of the meal made by grinding corn in
the ear, and, its value in his opinion
depends almost entirely on its fneness
1t is well known that in the fall and
winter when farmers wish to feed the
most corn, and generally have to be-
gin ON the new crop, there is SO much
moisture in the cobs that it is utterly
impossible for any mill to grind them
down fine.
About 40 years ago cobmeal craze
broke out in northern Pennsylvania,
and the proprietor of the mill at Sugar
Run incurred considerable expense to
put i'll new waterwheel and the
necessary machinery for reducing corn
in the ear to meal, and nearly all the
mills in the country followed his exam
pie. For awhile they did good bust
ness at grinding cobs. but gradually the
corncob custom fell off, and in three
or four years had ceased entirely.
What was the cause of such surprising
downfall in the popularity of cobmea1
and cob mills? 1t was because the
farmers, having given the meal fair
trial, had become convinced that the
actual value of cobs was so little that
it did not pay to have them ground,
and that corn in the, ear could not be
ground SO finely as shelled corn. 1t is
not possible to grind corn and cobs as
finely as they should be ground at the
season when farmers want to feed the
most.
Professor Stewart cites the Connecti-
cut experiment station as finding by
analysis that cobs have a value of A
cents per 100 pounds, or slightly more
than cornstalks. Did they ever give
their cattle their choice between cobs
and cornstalks ito see which they pre-
fer? The value may be in the cobs, but
no animal ever got it out. John M.
Stahl, who is good authority, says, 81
have fed cobmeal-made three trials
of it-and have not been able to get
much feeding value from it, Waldo
F. Brown is an advocate of cobmeal
but admits that at one institute in Ohio
he found but few advocates for it in
large audience and did find many who
considered itunft to feed.