TEE FODDER CORN QUESTION. 137 



cannot get my men to go into it as I want them to. But I 

 apprehend that there is some virtue in this fodder corn, if we 

 cannot get anything better. I think I first started the using of 

 this corn in the southern part of Berkshire County. Until 

 within the last few years, there were but five entries of 

 this corn in our society ; the past year, there were sixty 

 entries. Those gentlemen here who know the Berkshire farm- 

 ers know that they are men of intelligence and experience ; 

 that they are as good farmers as can be found in a mountainous 

 country. They are men who know what they are about ; they 

 farm for a profit ; and do you suppose there are sixty farmers 

 there who devote from one to two acres every year to raising 

 this fodder corn, knowing it to be entirely worthless ? The 

 doctor may be right ; I am very glad he has given us this 

 explanation ; but he stands firmly to-day upon the ground that 

 this kind of corn is worthless. It may be so down in his region ; 

 there may be some peculiarity in the atmosphere, or in the 

 animals by which the assimilation of this food is of no benefit 

 to them ; but in the western part of this State, that is the only 

 substitute we have for our pastures. It seems to me that we 

 should just as soon cry down the raising of grass in our pastures 

 as to cry down the raising of this fodder corn, until we find 

 something to take its place. 



Mr. Ward, of Shrewsbury. I think there is no great differ- 

 ence between Mr. Goodman and Dr. Loring. If I understand 

 the doctor, he does not condemn the use of fodder corn. He 

 acknowledges that it made everything but milk. When he 

 went to his millet, and let that mature, then he made milk. 

 Now, I believe Mr. Goodman in his remarks acknowledged the 

 same fact, — that there was life-sustaining matter in the fodder 

 corn, but he did not say that he increased his milk. 



Mr. Goodman. No, sir ; but I say I made the same amount 

 of butter. 



Mr. Ward. Milk is Dr. Loring's object; and it is the object 

 of most farmers. It is the desire of most farmers to use that 

 kind of fodder that will make the most milk, and I do not con- 

 ceive that there is that extreme difference between the state- 

 ments of the two gentlemen that some might perhaps infer. 

 I believe they will come to the same point in the end. 



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