Year: 1868

When we speak of corn fodder we


mean corn and its ear husks and leaves,


cut and cured, as already stated. Some


of our best farmers are of the opinion


that corn fodder, grown upon rich soil,


will paw for harvesting the crop-that
il is better food for cattle than wheat or


oat straw, and worth as much or even


more than hay itself for milch cows and


young cattle, especially if harvested at


the right time and well cured and cut


fine and steamed or scalded before feed
inc To the cows--aHd that corn fodder


is still better if mixed with wheat, rye,


buck heat bran or ground corn, or oat


meal, and sprinkled with little sait.
Some, however, are still of the old opin-
ion that corn fodder is inferior to timo-
thy or clover or hay as a COW or cattle
food, and it certainly is so when badly
harvested and cured, as is often the case.
The value of corn fodder is, in fact,
greatly underestimated, but that value,
it should be borne in mind, depends
very much upon cutting it at the right
time, ard curing and housing it we'll
before its strength or saccharine juices
are washed away by our heavy au-
tumnal rains. 1t should also be borne
in mind that if corn stalks are cut too
early, or while yet green, the saecharine
matter or juices contained in them will
turn sour, and become vinegar instead
of sugar, and so lose their nutritivc
power, hence they should never be cut
until fully ripe.


Many careful experiments and com
parisons have also proved most satisfac.
torily that corn itself fed to horses,
mules, sheep, milch cows, and other
cattle, and hogs, in a raw, whole or
unground state, is frem one-third to
one. half less fattening than the same
amount of corn ground into meal and
well cooked or boiled: that corn boiled
whole or soaked only in water until it
is soft, is also more fattening than raw
fed corn, but less fattening than boiled
or well-cooked corn meal. A consider
able portion fed to cattle and hogs in a
raw or unground state is always swal-
lowed without being masticated, and
passes through the animal whole, as we
see from its excrements, and, of course,
being entirely undigested, has done no
good whatever. Ground corn, on the
ether hand, particularly if cooked or
boiled, not only nourishes but relieves
the animal from large portion of that
labor or action of the stomach requisite
to the digestion of whole corn before
to the animals blood or
vital power. And when corn is mixed
and chopped or ground up with oats or
rye, it is still more valuable, because
less heating to the animal, and also less
productive of costiveness and collie than
when fed raw or alone. Cows will also
give more milk and hogs fatten sooner
on scalded or boiled corn meal, mixed
with apples, pumpkins, potatoes, car
rots, turnips, or other roots, or bran, or
the common slop of our kitchens,
slightly salted, than they will or can on
corn meal alone. Even the cob of our
Indian corn contains some nourish-
lnent, a good deal more than most peo
pie are aware of; hence it may, and in
times of high prices for corn ought to
be, ground with the grain to fatten hogs
md beef cattle. This is not its only
for it also increases
the bulk Of the food, and therefore rem
lers it more digestible and wholesome
than the pure corn meal alone.