The advocate., 1897-10-27

cept where they could be operated on a
private farm, where they would probably
be operated part Of the time, and where
it would not be necessary to keep any
account in particular for labor, as only
part Of the labor, If any, would be cash.
But when the value of the stOver Is taken
into consideration it is very clear that
the economy Of the husker Is very con-
siderable, and think they will come
largely into use by single owners or by
groups of farmers, or by persons who
will take them to husk corn as they
thresh grain. Good we'll cured stover al
$3.50 or 81 ton, and as good or better
than prairie hay, is certainly cheap. II
is as cheap as the cost Of hay to a man
who rents hay land and puts up the hay
himself Another advantage is the cut
ting of the corn stalks and leaving the
field in better shape for another crop.
AS soon as the value of hay rises above
the low figure of 81, the value of this
product increases very fast, as / am quite
able to appreciate, having fed hay to
cattle that cost anywhere from SO to $14
ton. / wish l had now a good many
thousands Of dollars that have been paid
for high priced hay. AS far as original
prairie hay is concerned, / am utterly
unable to agree with those persons who
consider that land should be left in this
condition. To my mind 1t indicates a
sOrdid conception of agriculture, entirely
unworthy of good farmer. Putting
land into timothy hay and clover is all
right, of course, for purposes Of rotation,
but to leave land in wild prairie hay is
ineXcusable, If it is only for the purpose
Of hay. Possibly ought to qualify that
by saying that this is true in case the
same person entirely neglects to use his
corn fodder.
Our fodder has been almost entirely
fed directly from the shock and cutting
machines, and we have not attempted
to store any fodder to speak Of We had
some so tons in stack for a couple Of
months or so in the winter of 1894-'95,
but 1t did not keep particularly we'll. |
think that it can be kept very well in
stacks outdoors If it is not shredded
until rather late in the season, November
Is to December 1, If the stacks are prop
erly topped out with hay. think with
a marketable commodity and stored in
barns or stored on stacks as l describe,
if it is not cut or shredded until thor
oughly well cured in the shock. There
will probably be more difficulty in stor-
ing it in any of these ways in Kansas
than in Nebraska, as our climate is
somewhat dryer.
The main point of this article is, that
on so large scale as 1875 acres we actu-
ally did get 4O.6 bushels Of corn per acre
and one and one-half tons of fodder, bet
ter than hay, from the same land. This
is really the most important question,
as storage is only a detail, and as to
this point our figures are reliable. In
harvesting and feeding corn as / have
described, Of course we are not able to
weigh our corn, but we reserve in every
field certain number of sample shocks
for testing the yield of each field These
shocks are husked and carefully weighed.
This method of determining the yield
might not be thoroughly satisfactory on
a small scale, but on large scale it is
doubtless good enough. Besides this
method Of computing the sizes of the
crop, the different fields are constantly
estimated over and over again through
out the season, and are harvested by
skillful men, who can very closely esti-
mate the yield at harvest time even
without testing.
The results of our experiment make it
very clear that it is entirely unnecessary
that we should ever be in a position
where rough fodder or hay should be
scarce and very dear. Within the last
few years l have known farmers to the
west of us to buy hay for spring work
costing them 81 or So a ton. The econ