136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



advantage. The question is not whether fodder corn is the 

 best food. You have got to draw the same distinction in this 

 case, that should be drawn in regard to barnyard manure. "We 

 all agree that that is the best manure in the world ; but sup- 

 pose you have not got it, then you must come down to the next 

 best. So it is with corn fodder. If you have plenty of pas- 

 turage, you do not want this fodder corn, because it is poor 

 stuff; it is hard to grow and difficult to keep, and when it is 

 made, it is not half so good as grass, when put into the barn 

 for winter ; but the great question now is, — take a region like 

 Western Massachusetts, where our pastures grow dry almost 

 every season, where they are apt to fail by the first of September, 

 and where, the last two seasons, they failed about the first of 

 August, — what are we to do ? Why, do what I have done for 

 some years, raise what is called fodder corn, and raise it in the 

 best possible way. Dr. Nichols has told us, and the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture at Washington has told us this year, after 

 gathering the facts from farmers all over the country, that the 

 best way to cultivate this fodder corn is to plant it in drills, so 

 that it will be exposed to the air and the sun, and get more 

 mature, and do a great deal better than when it is sown broad- 

 cast. I have sown it for two years so thick that no weeds 

 could come up. My pastures were entirely dried up, this year, 

 and for at least six weeks fodder corn was all my cows had to 

 support them, and I did not see that the profits from the milk 

 were reduced from what they had been when the cows were in 

 the pasture. 



Mr. Buffinton. Did it spindle before you fed it out ? 



The Chairman. Yes, sir. I got the Western corn. It was 

 sown broadcast, as thick as it could be, and it grew at least four 

 feet high. That is the stuff which is designated as " fodder 

 corn," which we call " corn fodder" ; because what the farmers 

 in my section call corn fodder is corn stalks after the corn has 

 been taken from them. 



Now, there must be some virtue in this corn. It is perfectly 

 idle for any man to say that you can sow a kernel of corn, and 

 that the blade which comes up from that is worthless. You 

 might just as well say that you may sow a grass seed and the 

 blade of timothy that springs from it is not good for anything. 

 I have sown Hungarian grass, but it requires more care, and I 



