The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1906-12-27
TIE WASTE OF THE cANNERY.
Tho Husks and Rejected Sweet Corn
Ears Used for Feeding Mules.

the huSke ana HeJocteu SWeet NosH
Ears Used for Feeding Mules.
Illinois farmers who a. the product
of three thousand acres Of sweet corn
have successfully utilized the shucKs
and rejected BARS by feeding them TO
a big herd Of Missouri mules. Here
tofcre the shucks and other ona
have been q waste product. Tho
mules eat them greedily, fatten on
them and in the course Of a few weeks
almost double their price. The farm
er Gamers buy the mules at prices
ranging from $50 to $135. They sell
them at prices ranging from $3.50 TO
$3.50.
One Of the canneries at Hoopeston,
ILL.,, now has a herd of four hundred
mules. They are quartered in a great
barn that is $50 feet long and l04 feet
wide, resting on a solid concrete
foundation. The cost of the barn
alone was $4,000. The corn farmers
for they do all Of their W farming
in producing sufficient sweet corn to
put up 100000 cans-appropriated
$50, 900 to buy the mules and build
the barn.
They commenced buying mules last
winter. All were bought in the st.
Louis market and were shipped d.
rect to the yards Of the canning
plant at Hoopeston. When the can
ming season opened this year they be-
gan feeding the mules with the
shucks. rejected ears and offal from
the shocking room, where all OF the
corn is shocked by hand and the I'M
perfect ears removed. The mules
were fed three times a day and cen
sumed about $500 pounds daily. The
feed had the effect of physicking the
animals at first, but they soon go1
over it, and especially when a ration
| of hay was fed. The feed will fatten
a mule in from five to six weeks. In
the big barn none of the mules are
over six years old, many OF
them are three year oids
and the younger ones par
ttcularly are as fine looking a lot Of
sleek coated creatures as one Woulc
care to see. The fat mules are Sole
as fast as they are ready for the mar
ket. Some Of them came to the can
merry little more than skin and bones
Thew eat the stuff greedily and hee
haw for more. AS fast as a CARLOAD
is shipped back to st. Louis-for the
bulk of them go back whence they
came-another carload is brought IN
It Is proposed to keep on feedlns
mules all winter. The big barn Is
provided with a granary that vii
hold ten thousand bushels and NOV!
that have a capacity of mi thousart
tons of hay, SO when the shucks give
out the long cared, high priced fellows
will be well taken care of.
AS has been said, the canning PEG
pie do all Of their w farming, TO
by this plan they are able to contro
the ripening of their crops to sui
them. All Of the work of three thou
sand acres is done by mules. Ther'
are ffty-two teams. There isn't
horse about the place. When the can
ming season Is over the thirty-fy'
hands that are employed on the bi!
farm commence hauling manure an
they plough the corn stalks under
thereby returning much of the fertl
lily that has been taken from the SOL
In the canning season the plant en-
ploys an army of men, women an
children, and this feature of saving
a great deal of stuff that formerl
was waste and in preparing for tn
market some of the most useful an
mails of the country will render tn
enterprise still more valuable to tn
town and country people alike. |
Graf, Ravenswood, III.