Corn Growers' Association. 325 



and oil meal, or clover, alfalfa or cowpea hay, while with the cattle 

 it is the same, except that cottonseed meal is used instead of oil 

 meal. 



Fodder, made as I have suggested, is consumed almost entirely, 

 and it yields immensely w^hen planted in this way, and conse- 

 quently but a comparatively few acres are required to Ibe devoted 

 to the production of the fodder. 



Of the various methods of harvesting, after considering cost, 

 speed and condition of the fodder, I greatly prefer the three-wheel, 

 two-row cutter, drawn by one horse and operated by two men. 



In the feeding of the foddei' no attempt whatever is made to 

 husk or otherwise remove the ears. It is fed entire by placing on a 

 farmer's handy-wagon once a day a sufficient amount for one feed- 

 ing, which is scattered over the various parts of pasture lands, and 

 thus what little of stalk is left is distributed on the thinner portions 

 of the field in the one operation of feeding, as well as accomplishing 

 the distribution of the droppings of the animals so fed, and thus 

 much farm labor is saved, which has really become one of the vital 

 considerations on all farms. 



To those who have never fed corn fodder other than the 

 ripened fodder from completely matured corn, and which has in al- 

 most all instances become seriously damaged, I can say, in all truth- 

 fulness, that there is a genuine surprise for them in the amount of 

 food per acre that can be produced when planted for corn fodder, 

 nor is the small amount of work connected with its feeding in this 

 manner any more generally understood. 



Finally, I might add that I find it pays me well to remove the 

 tillers or ''suckers" from the fields that are calculated ro produce 

 a merchantable article of corn. My soil is not naturally a very rich 

 one, and where I use not to exceed one hundred pounds of com- 

 mercial fertilizer per acre, the suckers need be removed but once, 

 v/hich I have done when they are some five inches in height, the 

 corn being then about knee high. Where some one hundred and 

 fifty pounds of the fertilizer have been used, it is necessary to again 

 remove them. 



This second campaign against them is waged when the second 

 crop of suckers are about knee high and the corn about shoulder 

 high. 



Under the conditions named there 'are about sixty per cent 

 as many suckers to remove the second time as there were the first 

 time. The cost of removing them is approximately fifteen cents 

 per acre per time, and the increase in yield is several bushels per 



