Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-11-24
Making the Best of Corn stalks.

Corn cutting time never coma.
around without making the writer
smile at the ideas which prevailed
among farmers when and where he was
a boy. The first of corn cutting was
always topping it,, so as to SECURE
fresh and green the top part of the
stalks with the tassel. This part being
fine and small, it was supposed could
be eaten better than the larger stalks
below the ear. Then, as all the val
liable part of the stalk was supposed
to be gathered, the ears were left to
ripen on the long butts, and after they
were husked stock was turned in to
pick out what they could. AS by that
time frosts had cut the leaves and
ruptured the stalks, they were then
ct little more value than dry woody
fibre. as most of their juices had dried
out. Naturally enough, with only the
upper third of the corn stalk saved as
being worth keeping, corn stalks as
food for stock were little thought of,
and not considered nearly as good as
hay.
All this suddenly changed when
farmers began the cut corn from the
field for soiling cows. Though they
broke off the ears of corn so as to not
make the food too rich, the COW al
ways seized the corn stalk, not by its
butt and still less by its tip. She
would grasp the stalk with her tongue
just where the ear was broken off,
draw it into her mouth and double ii
up, then chewing vigorously both ways
until the taste did not suit her, when
she would bite off a part of butts and
the tassel, and let them drop out of
her mouth on the ground or in the
manger. If the stalk was not turned
to woody fibre at the butt, very little
of the lower part of it would be thrown
out. The tassel and some part of the
stalk below it would, however, always
be left uneaten, thus expressing the
cows practical judgment that this was
the least valuable and least palatable
part of the stock.
In eating corn stalks the COW knows
what is best for her. 1t behooves men
to learn from her if they would feed
her sensibly. Just at the time flint
corn begins to glaze, and most of its
substance is in the milky stage, the
stalk is sweet and full of juices down
to the root But Immediately after
this the lower part of the stalk hard
ems. That cuts off most of the sap
from the root, and the sooner after
this the corn is cut the better the
stalks will be. Experiments have
shown, too, that if corn cutting is de-
layed after this there is very little, if
any, gain in the weight of grain. The
juices in the stalk and the carbon
elaborated from the leaves continue to
fill out the grain on the ear, perhaps
not as well as they would before the
corn was cut, but enormously better
than they could if the leaves or stalks
had been frostbitten.
The safest rule, therefore, is to cut
corn any time after the surface has
glazed, and especially if there seems
danger that frost will scorch and brown
the leaves, thus at once stopping their
further use in helping to deposit starch
in the grain. When corn has been
frostbitten before cutting the leaves
have their sap vessels ruptured, and
this poisons the sap, often causing the
stalks to turn sour. Stalks thus in.
jured cannot be kept in any way, ex-
cept by cutting them and packing SO
closely in the silo that they will be ex
posed only to the fumes of carbonic
acid gas generated by their own de.
composition. This is the principle OF
the silo, and therefore there is slight
ly sour taste to even the best-kept 81
lage, and very decidedly sour taste
to that which is put up badly. Amer.
lean Cultivator
Farm and Garden Notes.