THE GROWING OF CORN. 09 



I husk it in the field, and each day it is carried into the barn 

 at night. 



Mr. Geinnell. Are you satisfied it is better to cut up 

 corn, or top it? 



Dr. Stuktevant. I cannot see any gain in topping it, 

 and I see a great expense. The leaf is the most valuable 

 part of corn. When you top corn, you abandon the most 

 valuable part to the atmosphere, to be destroyed. I know 

 others differ from me in that, and I expect that there will be 

 a difference of opinion about it, because it is one of those 

 things in regard to which it is pretty difficult to prove a 

 knowledge, and I only give it as an opinion. 



Question. In your experiments in regard to temperature, 

 at how low temperature have you found corn to germinate ? 



Dr. Sturtevant. I have forgotten that. I think the 

 German experimenters state it to be forty-two or forty-tliree. 

 I know that my rule in planting is, when the strata at the 

 depth we plant gets about fifty degrees, it is about time to 

 plant, whether it is the first of June or middle of May. 



Question". Do you think corn-fodder is worth enough 

 more after cutting to pay for the expense of cutting? 



Dr. Sturtevant. What do you mean by " cutting " ? 



Question. Do the cattle eat more of it, eat it up cleaner? 



Dr. Sturtevant. In my own stable I have tried some 

 experiments, and I can give you the results definitely. The 

 part rejected by my cows is, in round numbers, ten per cent 

 of the weight. The question is, whether it will pay to cut 

 ten tons to make a cow eat one, and that one — the part 

 which has, by analysis, very little value — light as vanity. 

 I do not think it will. It looks very heavy in bulk, but 

 there is very little weight to it. I would not believe myself, 

 until I repeated the experiment, how very light it was. 

 When you see how much, apparently, is wasted, you do not 

 realize, nutil you weigh it, how light it is in pi'oportion to its 

 bulk. 



Question. Will you give us the cause of smut in corn ? 



Dr. Sturtevant. I think it is a true plant. In an in- 

 teresting essay on smut, in the " Transactions of the New- 

 York State Agricultural Society," it is stated that the corn- 

 smut grows from seed up in and through the plant, and I 

 know of no facts which are contradictory of this statement. 



