18 The Bulletin. 



and bound at one operation ; the bundles are then set up in shocks and 

 allowed to dry out; when dry, the shocks are loaded on the wagon and 

 hauled to the shredder, where, at one operation, the corn is husked and 

 loaded into a wagon and the stover blown into the barn loft or other 

 receptacle. The ears are then cribbed. The whole crop being thus 

 removed from the land with but six operations — less than one-third the 

 number formerly required. 



By another method, which is even more commendable than either of 

 the two from the standpoint of soil fertility, the farmer husks the ears 

 on the stalk and throws them into the wagon at one operation; hauls 

 the corn to the crib and unloads it ; then cuts the stalks, fodder, and all 

 to pieces with a stalk cutter, and the land is ready for plowing, making 

 just four operations, as against twenty-two with the first named method. 



In the South much corn that has been shocked after the western 

 method rots before it can be shredded or otherwise housed from the 

 weather. We are sometimes tempted, perhaps, to ape western methods 

 without fully understanding western conditions. There is no question 

 but that if stock is to be fed with stover as roughage, the corn crop 

 should be cut up and shocked after the manner of the corn-belt farmer. 

 It is but criminal waste of time and physical energy for the cattle feeder 

 to "cut tops" and "pull fodder" after the old methods practiced in the 

 South. 



But it must be borne in mind that climatic conditions in Iowa and 

 Illinois are different in the fall from what they are in North Carolina. 

 There the falls are cool and dry; here they are warm and nearly always 

 wet. There the drought comes in the fall ; here it comes in midsummer. 

 There com shocks may stand in the field till spring without injuring 

 the corn or materially reducing the feeding quality of the stover; here 

 both corn and stover are likely to be ruined by Christmas. There the 

 corn shocks are made of from three to five medium-sized bundles and 

 opened wide at the base so the air can quickly and easily circulate 

 through them; here the shocks are generally of haystack proportions, 

 closely compacted throughout, in order, it would seem, to exclude the 

 air and promote fermentation — a condition that so nearly always fol- 

 lows as to make the spoiling of shocked corn in this region the rule 

 rather than the exception. Our farmers are, therefore, afraid to cut 

 and shock com lest they lose both corn and stover by rotting in the 

 shock. 



But this condition can be remedied, to a great extent, by reducing 

 both the size of the bundles and the size of the shocks. The corn should 

 be cut when the husk is beginning to yellow or turn brown and the 

 grains have become dented and glazed. The shocks should be set up 

 as soon as the binder has passed, and opened out wide at the bottom in 

 order to allow the air to circulate freely through the base and middle of 

 the shock. Not more than three bundles should ever be placed in one 

 shock in the South. Just as soon as the shocks have' dried out they 



