The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-11-09
No More Fodder Pulling.
Machine for Cutting Stalks and
Leaves and Stripping Ears.

Machine for Cutting Stalks and
Leaves and Stripping Ears.
Yorkville Enq1irer.
I'LL never pull fodder again; that
is settled This is what Mr.. Nc.
Claim said last Monday when salts
fed as to the result of his recent ex-
pertinent of harvesting his corn in
accordance with the western method
of cutting down the stalks and shock
ing them in the field.
How Mr.. McClain, instead Of pull
ing fodder, cut his corn down and
shocked it in the field with a view to
running it through shredder later
on, was told in The Enquirer early in
the fall, and We promised at the
time to tell our readers how the ex.
pertinent panned out. Mr. McC,in
began shredding last Monday, and
the reporter went down to Spring
d I'll to see the result.
A corn shredder is a machine
which, in general way, looks some
what like straw cutter, only it is
larger and there is considerably more
mechanism about it. There is a
frame about six feet high, feed table
large enough to hold several armsful
of cornstalks, some corrogated rollers,
and behind these a shaft carrying
about ten large toothed circular saws
set side by side and some three
inches apart. The machine runs by
steam power and at a very high
speed, the saws revolving at the rate
of several thousand revolutions per
minute. The cornstalks are fed into
the machine butt end foremost and
are chewed up by the corruggated d
rollers, which mash and tear them on
dowL D the ear of corn, which is at
tackled from the base, stripped from
the shuck and thrown out of the
machine through spout on the
right hand side into hamper basket.
The stalks and shucks pass on
through the rollers against the saws
and are torn into fragments varying
from 3 to 4 inches in length down
ward to almost dust. The product
is called "stover," which is turned
o 1t at the rate of about a ton pei
hour and which is said to be most
excellent roughness for stock.
But the corn, which instead ol
having been allowed to mature on
fodder stripped stalks, has for sev.
eral weeks been standing in the field
in the shocks. The condition of this
is the question jast now. Most of it
is in perfect condition, great deal
of it is more or less damaged, and
s)me of it total loss. At a rough
estim ate, the reporter would say that
about 70 per cent. was perfectly
sound, about p per cent. was more
or less damaged and about 10 per
cent. was total utterl y worth,
less. This estimate is based on the
appearance of pile containing about
30 bushels, all that had been husked
at the time Of the reporters visitor.
However, this condition should not
be too hastily attributed to the
method of harvesting, for that would
be serious mistake. The totally
worthless corn was such as had been
knocked fran the shocks and allowed
to lie on the ground, where it rotted
or sprouted, Including this, how
ever, the per centage of damage is
no greater than is being reported
from all sections of the county, even
n upland corn that has been treated
according to the usual methods.
Taking these facts into consideration
Mr.. McClain is perfectly satisfied
with his experiment, and SO is his
foreman, Mr.. Hogue. That IS WY
McClain is SO emphatic in his declar-
alton that he will pull no more fod-
der
The "Stover," of which thero will
be tons and tons, will be baled and