FODDER CORN AND CORN FODDER. 131 



of that. What was the consequence ? The experienced farm- 

 ers in Essex County found that there was no increase of milk, 

 but a diminution. Mind you, I am not talking about com 

 fodder, I am talking about fodder corn. The milk was dimin- 

 ished, but of everything else other than milk and beef, there 

 was an abundance. I said there must be some remedy for this. 

 One of the most sensible farmers in my district came to me and 

 said, " I have known just exactly this state of things for years ; 

 it is a perfect nuisance, just as you have found out for yourself; 

 I thought you were green and had not found it out and I would 

 not say anything about it." I thought I would turn round and 

 see if I could not find a remedy. I tried millet, and I found 

 that at the time when this fodder corn had reached the con- 

 dition which I have described, my millet had come to a condition 

 of maturity ; it stood almost up to my armpits, a solid mass of 

 vegetable matter with seed heads to it, and when I cut that 

 down, I found that the effect of that article, which had arrived 

 at that degree of perfection, was very different from the effect 

 of the fodder corn. 1 found I could make milk with that just 

 as well as I could with June grass ; there was no doubt about 

 it at all. I had got a plant there which, occupying the entire 

 soil as it does, without any spaces between the rows, I am sat- 

 isfied will yield as much food to the acre as fodder corn which 

 is planted in rows. You see it occupies every square inch of the 

 land, while the spaces between the rows of fodder corn are 

 utterly useless. It seemed to me that I had got at something 

 there that was useful. I fed my cows, and I got from two or 

 three acres of land, food that would last my herd of fifty animals 

 as long as my corn fodder would. I found no difficulty about 

 it. 



Then there came up this statement that I was all wrong. 

 And what did those gentlemen who thought I was wrong, say ? 

 "Why, they said, " Corn fodder is good food." So it is ; but 

 what is that commodity which we call " corn fodder " ? In the 

 first place, it is the stalks of corn ; in the next place, it is the 

 butts, usually so called. It is something that is matured, it is 

 something that is left after the ears are taken from the stalks. 

 That is corn fodder. That is what has been known from the 

 earliest period down to the present day as corn fodder, and that 

 is not what is usually called fodder corn in agriculture. If 



