96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



no reliable statistics showing to what extent. There may 

 be favored localities where farmers, with high cultivation ou 

 small areas, can make a greater profit by producing perisha- 

 ble crops for a home market, and buying the grain they need ; 

 but it is not so with the average farmer of the State. Denso 

 as our population is, we yet have a surplus of land — land on 

 which taxes have to be paid — which now yields little or no 

 income, and which, with proper treatment, is capable of pro- 

 ducing remunerative crops of corn ; which will have a ten- 

 dency, not to diminish, but to increase, the value of other 

 crops and of the farm itself. Statistics treat of this only as 

 a grain-crop. So far as I know, the aggregate in tons or in 

 value of the fodder is overlooked in gathering material for 

 the compilation of census-tables ; and the absolute value of 

 the crop to the State or nation is based on grain alone. The 

 "fodder-corn " produced in the State in 1875 is given as 15,863 

 tons, of a value of ^164,458. This is but a tithe of the fodder 

 of the cornfields. Judged by the acreage and yields of grain 

 that year, the fodder could not have been less than 70,000 

 tons, with a value of more than $500,000. This item is one 

 of too great importance to be forgotten in estimating crop 

 values, in the economy of the feeding-stuffs of the farm, or 

 the general utilizing and management of the crop. The 

 Massachusetts farmer must grow it for the grain and for 

 the fodder ; and all the details of its care should be with both 

 these objects in view. The soil, manures, seed, and tillage 

 best adapted to the growth of Indian corn are all interesting 

 subjects of discussion ; but by assignment we are to consider 

 only the best mode of harvesting it. This is done by three 

 methods, each of which has its advocates, and, perhaps in 

 varying circumstances, its advantages and disadvantages. 

 The best method for one locality may not be so for another. 

 At the West, where fodder of all the coarser kinds, and even 

 good hay, are so plenty and cheap that they will Ijear trans- 

 portation but a limited distance (and the crop is produced 

 for the grain alone), the best method is one which will secure 

 this in its highest perfection, even if the fodder is injured, 

 or totally ruined thereby, for feeding-purposes. There the 

 entire crop is allowed to stand in the field untouched, until 

 the grain has drawn all the nutriment possible from the 

 stalk, and is perfectly hard, when the ear is husked or picked, 



