Live Stock Breeders' Association. 185 



The table shows that in the first experiment equal parts of 

 alfalfa and stover produced a slightly larger daily gain than alfalfa 

 fed as the sole roughness with shelled corn. In the second experi- 

 ment, when snapped corn was fed, the reverse was true. A ration 

 consisting of corn and alfalfa is often too laxative, especially with 

 the later cuttir.gs of alfalfa. In the first experiment it is very 

 probable that the stover lessened the tendency to scour, while in 

 the second experiment the presence of husk and cob served the 

 same purpose. There may have been also some advantage in hav- 

 ing stover with alfalfa for variety. In this connection it may be 

 said that prairie hay will answer the same purposes. In a 1905-06 

 test equal parts of alfalfa and prairie hay, with a light feed of 

 snapped corn, gave an average daily gain of 2.01 pounds, compared 

 with 1.96 pounds for stover and alfalfa, and 2.06 pounds for alfalfa. 

 The prairie hay, however, cost as much as the alfalfa ($6.00 per 

 ton), so there was nothing saved by using it. In both the experi- 

 ments tabulated above, the use of corn-stover at $2.50 per ton as 

 half the roughness reduced the cost of gains — in the first 40 cents 

 per hundred, and in the second 48 cents. The stover proved to ba 

 actually worth $3.55 per ton with snapped corn and $4.16 per ton 

 with shelled corn, worth 39 cents per bushel, as compared witli 

 alfalfa fed alone at $6.00 per ton. Nebraska produced last year, 

 in round numbers, eight million tons of corn-stover. If one-half of 

 this amount could have been converted into beef, bringing $2.50 

 per ton from the shock, instead of 50 cents in the stalk fields, eight 

 millions of dollars could have been added to our earnings, and no 

 losses from cornstalk disease would have come from feeding the 

 stalks thus harvested. 



FEEDING CORN FODDER (ENTIRE PLANT). 



The objection that is usually raised against the practice of 

 cutting and shocking corn for feeding purposes is the labor in- 

 volved in husking it from the shock. The fact that a great deal 

 of corn may be fed to cattle in the stalk unhusked is entirely over- 

 looked. During the first part of the fattening period a large part 

 of the corn may be fed in that manner. In a 1905-06 experiment 

 one lot of ten two-year-old steers was fed corn fodder for a period 

 of twelve weeks in comparison with the same amount of snapped 

 corn and stover fed another lot. Two-thirds of all the corn given 

 the one lot was attached to the stalk, the remainder consisting of 

 shelled corn fed at night. Charging four cents per bushel for 



