The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-10
september work on the Experiment
 station Farm.

september work on the ExpefeAs
 station Farm.
 rh. months of september and De- tober are probably more crowded witn work than any other months on the Experiment Station Farm. The large number of plots of cotton. corn. coA- neas. forage plants etc.. have to pc mar vested. Plans have to be made Tor tne pitching of the next years crops. that IS for the fields and plots to be allotted to each crop and to each experiment. Ine preparation for the sowing or vetcn, | the clovers, the grasses, the small grains. and other forage crops usually overlap the harvesting of the current years crop.
 1 Since this Is neither the time noi l the place to announce results of expert ments this article will deal only with facts of a more general nature.
 The average visitor to the fields mas been as much interested in the work of the corn harvester as in any experi- ment. This implement pulled by three mules, has harvested nearly all of our corn crop except the experimental crops, which have to be gathered by hand, and has cut the greater part of the sorghum hay, or more properly, sorghum fodder, grown for our i've stock. This implement binds corn or sorghum into. large bundles It is manufactured primarily for economi- cal handling of the corn crop and to enable the farmer to utilize whatever nutriment there is in corn stalk and blades without having to resort to the slow process of fodder pulling.
 It was at first doubted by some to whom the matter was mentioned whether such an implement would be practicable on a farm as rolling ana rocky as is the station farm at Au- burn. However, neither of these un- favorable conditions nor the still great CT difficulties of precipitous terraces prevented the successful use Of this machine. The terraces were plowed down and either temporarily omitted or located anew.
 The corn harvester on more nearly level land with long rows should bind from seven to nine acres per day in corn or from four to six acres in harvesting sorghum, growing in mar rower rows At this rate, speaking roughly, the cost of cutting an acre of corn would be about twenty-five or thirty cents in addition to the cost of twine. The cost of shocking corn that has been tied in bundles isvery much less than in shocking corn cut by hand. We found that at the beginning of the sea- son 1t required at least three ordinary negro laborers to shock the corn as fast as the machine cut 1t. but some farmers report that two experienced shockers can keep up with the machine. We placed from twelve to fourteen bundles in a shock. and the bundles usually contained from twelve to eighteen stalks.
 Useful as Is the harvester in hand ling corn, it is of even greater value in the curing of drilled sorghum, which this year grew too large for the mower. This sorghum, cut perfectly green but after the heads had coiored. was In some fields placed in small shocks immediately, and in other fields allowed to lie in bundles on the ground for several days before shocking. In neither case did we lose a single bun dle so far as I could observe. In this connection I may say that while the greater part of the curing season was very dry and favorable to the curing of forage crops, a part of our sorghum, cut and bundled by this machine. was exposed to several rains, after be- ing shocked, It suffered far less than