The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-16
WIEN IO GDI
THE CORN CROP
How Most May Be Gotten Out
of 1t.
INTERESTING FARM TOPICS
Poultry, Cattle and Other
Livestock Included.
INTERESTING FARM TOPICS

The experiment station at Geneva, n
u, has been conducting some tests. We
quote three. The same kind of land plant
ed same way and same day.
First acre, cut when in full tassel
weighed and shocked to cure out. Weight
when cut. 1900 pounds; weight Of dry
feeding matter, l $50 pounds, more than
1900 pounds was woody, watery stuff.
The second acre weighed 5000 pounds
When cut 1t was in the milk stage -Four
thousand pounds of dry feeding matter or
feeding stuff
The thir dacre was not cut until fully
ripe, both stalk and ear. Weight, 14,OOc
pounds; when air dry there was 5000
pounds of dry feeding matter.
From tasseling to full maturity the gain
in rutritive value was twenty-seven
times Hundreds Of instances might be
cited to prove these figures. Here is the
philosophy for this remarkable increase.
The first period of plant growth is the
structural, to build up the largest pos
sible bulk or growth. making plant cells,
after the fashion of bees. At the tasselng
period these cells are filled with nearly
pure water, just a trace OF food quality
and that plant food.
The tasseling period is the climax OF
the growing period. In the pollen, the
male principle, comes to maturity. I'm
mediately following. the shoot pushes out
with its silk, or the female principle, a
silk for every grain. The silk is fortified
and the real work of plant life begins.
the forming of seeds, or self perpetuation.
Up to this time the carbon from the air,
the potash, silica, lime-sol elements-in-
Guiding a little phosphoric acid. was the
food of the plant.
Whe nthe real work begins in earnest,
phosphate assumes full command; nj
trogen, potash. and lime salts, servants
or soldiers. Every day the water In the
cells is fed or nourished with some por-
tions of food. Not a cell from top to
bottom that is not fed, those of the seeds
most bountifully. Until the food ele-
ments in the sap undergo certain physical
and chemical changes, that We call ma
turing or ripening, these food clements
are unorganized food substances. lacking
nutritive quality. AS the sap loses watery
character and takes on food quality the
cells and plant tissues fill with organized
food elements we call protein, carbohy-
drates and fat, the principal food quail
ties.
There is almost no food substance in a
soft green woody plant growth corn
stalk without an ear will be much richer
food tina nthe stalk from which an ear
has been plucked. Nature is so resource
full that she works (to us) blindly in her
chemical workshop.
Don't be alarmed and cut your corn
crop too early. to save the sap as many
believe, says a correspondent of the
Farmers Voice. It is quality food sub
stance yo uwant. AS we have shown
you sap in the green stage is nearly all
water. AS the plant ripens the sap gives
of its moisture and takes up the solid
food substances. Sap never descends;
once up, always up the water or mois-
ture evapcTates and leaves the food sub
stances in the plant cells. If you have no
ears let your stalks get fully ripe Be
extra careful in shocking and protecting
st.
But few people have a well defined IDEA
of the real feeding value of corn fodder
as a whole and the different parts. For
their benefit / copy the following from
the Georgia experiment station bulletin:
The crop of corn was estimated at forty
bushels Der acre