The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-09-27
THIS EOR FARMERS.
Why Pull Your Corn Fodder?--SOme
Valuable Experiments Made.
T By F. F. Emery, Agriculturist. |

corn in the usual way of pulling fodder
/ and plucking the ears. Some recent
/ Experiment Station work serves to
bring this out in relief. Mr.. j.. II.
Patterson, of the Maryland Station.
publishes some matter showing the
! location Of the dry matter Of the corn
plant in three crops examined. Co.
/ efficents Of degestibility are given,
with which composition and total di-
gestibe product of ears, topped fodder,
blades. husks and stubble. The results
show the ears and blades to have been
only $3.50 per cent. Of the dry matter
Of the crop. The other parts, usually
neglected by our farmers. consequently
amount to 40. II per cent. or at least
one-half.
OF the digestible matter, sos per
cent. only was contained in ears and
blades. Thus nearly 4j per cent. Of
the dieestible matter Of the crop would
be lost by taking only ears and blades
from the field.
The digestibility of coarse fodder,
rich in carbohydrates, is greatly in
creased by feeding with highly nitro
| genous materials. such as cottOn-seed
meal. So it would be possible for one to
get almost as much digestlble food out
of the corn stalk left to rot in the field
as is saved from the crop in ears and
pulled fodder.
The simplest way to get the most
food out Of the corn crop is to cut close
to the ground with short-handled hoes
at about the time the fodder would be
pulled, and cure in sllO. Lacking
the silo, cut the corn in the same way
a few days later, or about the time
fodder is generally pulled, and shock
in the field. Put 400 to 600 pounds
in Il shock, and stand the butts out and
open enough to make the shock stand
firm and let in the air to dry the corn.
Bind the tops tight to hold together
and keep out rain.
When cured, shuck out the ears,
and cut what is left, known as the
stovers (the stalks, blades and shucks),
into inch lengths. Feed to cows or
work steams with cOtton-seed meal,
wheat bran, or such other heterogeneous
materials as can be most readily OBJ
tanned. For nearly balanced ration,
feed one pound Of meal to four of slower
and two Of oat straw. The slower
alone, will support an animal at rest
and not giving milk.
The following experiment, con-
Quoted during 1895, illustrates forci-
bly, the above statement that there is
a serious loss in pulling fodder, and
that by cutting the whole corn plant
almost twice as much food material
may be saved.
One rod of row of corn was cut
close to the ground like the rest of the
field. The leaves were carefully pulled
and weighed. The ears were broken
off and the green husks weighed. The
ears and stalks were weighed separately.
This was chosen to represent as nearly
as possible an average of the part OF
the field where it grew but tell below
an average, as the whole row yielded
at the rate of 1851 tons per acre,
while this one rod raised by multiple
cation to acre-yield was but Il. "a
tons. 1t is, however, better than the
average of Io.I tons per acre for the
whole field.
This corn was planted March SYST
and grew tall. 1t was checked by
dry hot weather in June and July.
This caused the ears to stop growing
and they were shorter than they should
have been. The corn was from thick
milk stage to nearly ripe but not dried.
! ba har ho1 -
leaves to dry about half way up the
stalks. This accounts for the high
per cent. of dry matter in the leaves.
The fresh plants were composed of
1901 per cent. OF ears, 7.7S per cent.
Of husks, 1923 per cent. of leaves,
and 6o.5S per cent. of stalks. The
proportion of dry matter of each part
was ears, 1871 per cent. of husks,
25.25 per cent; of leaves, 1852 per
cent, and of stalks 23.per cent. The
total yield of dry matter calculated to
one acre was I,5oS.SS pounds in ears;
$3.50 pounds in husks; 1,565.oS
pounds in leaves and >S,00o.25 pounds
in stalks.
Reducing this dry matter to per-
centage again shows that the IL per
cen. of the fresh crop in ears contained
1885 per cent of the dry matter in
the whole. The 7.7S per cent. in
husks contained only 6.SI per cent.
OF the dry matter, while the 1928
per cent. of leaves contained 1000
per cent. of the dry matter of the
whole crop. In the 6O.53 per cent.
of stalks was found 52.6S per cent.
of the dry matter, which was over half
of the entire crop in dry matter. This
helps US to understand the reason WHY
ensllage goes SO far in cattle feeding.
1t also contains a very strong reason
why farmers should cut up their corr,
and save the whole plan. instead of
pulling the fodder and neglecting to
save half of what they have grown
1t is notable that the ears and leaves
contained but little more than 40 per
cent, and with husks or shucks added
were less than half the crop of dry
matter, which is the part that counts
for food.
Again, of the digestible portion,
the really valuable part, while higher
percentages of digestibility are OBJ
tanned for the corn and pulled fodder
than for the stalks, it has been else
where shown that by feeding cheap
by-todder rich in protein with a coarse
product like corn stalks, the diges,i
bility can be largely increased so that
by such feeding in a skillful combina
ton Of these different articles it is
quite possible to get more from the
stalks than from the parts usually
, harvested if fed by themselves.
1t las often been remarked by prac-