The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-08-28
SAVE YOUR FODDER.
Farmers, Conserve Your Feed by
Saving Fodder.

The following article was handed
in by one of the leading citizens OF
Union county and will be of great
interest to many of our people:
AT this time when conservation"
is the universal topic; land, water,
wood and nearly everything else hay
ing been duly treated, let us add one
other item to the list. Feed. Con-
serve your feed by saving your corn
fodder, this we do not do by letting
the stalks stand in the field until af-
ter the corn is husked. BY that time
large portion OF the blades have
been blown away, the fall rains have
'leached' the substance out of what
is available, the stalks have become
dry and woody, the whole is fire.
quently covered with snow, and the
stock has to rustic" unprotected
for an unpalatable ration in a storm
swept field. If you have silo, all
the better, but do not stop cutting
corn when you have it filled. Cut and
shock a surplus. If you are not SO
fortunate as to have silO, cut up
your corn for you know that good
bright corn fodder, shredded and
fed in your barn, or shocked fodder
fed in the feed yard or in some pro-
tected feeding place when supple
mented with good straw and little
grain, makes a fine feed for both
cattle and horses. 1t is wasteful to
permit SO much good feed to be lost,
even when other kinds of feed and
grain are plenty and cheap, but in a
season like this, when such a large
portion of the country has suffered
q ht,r tnt tin1 fni1 Of
crops, and feed Of all kinds will be
scarce and dear. such waste would
be almost criminal. We have not
wholly escaped from the ravages Of
the drouth, our pastures are brown
and bare, making early feeding
necessity, and for the same reason
the feeding period will extend late
into the spring, making the con-
sumption of feed much more than
normal. Prepare for it by cutting up
your corn. Remember that Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the
Dakotas, have suffered from a pro-
longed drouth and the intense heat,
corn is almost failure and other
forage crops and pastures are badly
damaged. Without feed thousands
Of catt.e will be forced onto the mar
ket and must come east to be win
tered; prepare yourself with plenty
Of feed, SO that you can handle a
bunch Of this stuff. which, when well
Wintered, will go into pastures next
spring, at the longest prices in the
history of the cattle business. Feed
them your cheapest feed, enrich your
farm and at the same time, clean up
a nice profit; or If you do not care
to take the chance, have feed to sell
to your neighbor who does. While
the above reasons would be sufficient
inducement for having the fodder,
there is another incentive which
should determine the farmers of
Union county to do so this year. We
have fair crop of hay harvested in
| fine condition. Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio and New York report short hay
crops, the logical result is high prices
for hay here. Save your fodder, and
sell your hay, thereby partially at
least, making up the loss you have
sustained by the damage to your
corn crop. Make up your mind to
harvest your corn in this way, and
before the frost has fallen many
times on the pumpkin, see to it that
your fodder is in the shock -
Creston Advertiser.