58 ' . The Bulletin. 



will ripen every month from June until November. This is of importance on 

 the small place where only a few trees can be grown. 



Note. — The speaker gave a demonstration showing how trees are propa- 

 gated by the various methods. Specimens were also shown of trees that had 

 been propagated by various methods in previous years. 



Those interested should write to the North Carolina State Department of 

 Agriculture for Bulletin January, 1906, written by H. H. Hume and F. C. 

 Reimer on this subject, giving complete directions for the propagation of fruit 

 plants. 



HARVESTING THE CORN CROP. 



By A. L. FRENCH, Rockingham County. 



Various methods of harvesting the corn crop are in use in North Carolina. 

 The first, and to my mind by far the most economical and practical, is by the 

 use of the silo, as this is by far the best and cheapest method of securing the 

 food value of the entire corn plant. 



Three good horses hitched to a modern corn harvester and one man will 

 cut and bind seven to eight acres of heavy corn per day, if the fields are in 

 the condition they should be, viz., free of obstructions, cultivated level, and 

 the rows are of reasonable length. Three teams, hitched to wagons with low 

 wheels, can handle the corn bundles right ofiC the ground. They are hauled to 

 the silo, run through the cutter, packed away in the great tub, and the work 

 of harvesting the crop is complete. By this means we have made nutritious, 

 succulent feed of every ounce of the corn plant — stalk, blades, ears, shucks 

 and tassel. We harvested a hundred tons this season, at a cost of $40, hiring 

 everything, engine, cutter, teams, hands, corn harvester, and furnishing coal. 

 The whole cost of growing and harvesting this 100 tons of feed — enough to 

 keep twenty-five cows six months — was less than .$100,' including interest and 

 taxes on land. 



The second best method of handling the crop Is to cut and shock the corn, 

 cutting either by hand or harvester. Place in large shocks, six to eight feet in 

 diameter; let stand until thoroughly seasoned, last of October; then shred 

 with machine or shuck corn by hand ; bind fodder in large bundles, 16 to IS 

 inches in diameter, haul to the feeding lot, and stack in long ricks, the fodder 

 to be cut later or fed entire, as seems most economical under the conditions 

 existing. There is some economy in the hand shucking and feeding the whole 

 fodder for the small farmer, as the work may done by the regular farm force 

 and no outside expense incurred. 



Either of the foregoing methods is so far ahead of the last method I will 

 speak of as to make comparison impossible. I refer, of course, to the 

 method formerly so much in vogue in North Carolina ; that of pulling the 

 blade fodder by hand, tying in bundles, hanging the bundles on the stalks 

 to cure, then carrying them out by hand, loading into wagons, hauling out of 

 the fields and stacking around a pole. Then the tops must be cut, shocked 

 and handled in the same way. Then the ears, when dry, must be pulled, 

 thrown on the ground in piles, picked up by hand, thrown into the wagons, 

 hauled to the crib, thrown on the ground again, shucked by hand, the ears 

 thrown into the crib, the shucks in another place; when the work is done, 

 save that shucks are sometimes cut by a machine run by hand-power later, 

 before being fed. 



By careful experiments, we have found that on oiir farm, with our help, 

 we can secure aboiit eight times the feed at the same cost by the method of 

 hand-cutting the entire plant than we can by the last named method, and I 

 ask you. thinking farmers: Is it good business sense to continue longer a 

 practice that is so expensive? Use either of the better methods I have de- 

 scribed ; but don't pull fodder. 



