HARVESTING CORN. 97 



and the stalk allowed to remain for roaming cattle, or to be 

 ploughed under as food for a succeeding crop. This method 

 is too wasteful for us ; and, to secure its entire value, we har- 

 vest by cutting the fodder with the ears upon it, and secure 

 the whole from injury by placing it in compact stocks. But 

 just here is a vital question to be answered ; viz., At what 

 stage of its growth is it the best time to harvest it, regard 

 being had to the best condition of the grain compatible with 

 the best condition of the fodder? Of course, the riper the 

 grain, the better its quality ; but it will cure sound and hard 

 in average seasons if it is harvested with the stalk, when it 

 is getting out of the milk, and the outer end of the kernel is 

 beginning to glaze. As all the ears of a field will not be in 

 the same condition at any given time, harvest when an aver- 

 age shows a surface too hard to be easily indented with the 

 thumb-nail ; but at the same time regard must be had to 

 the condition of the stalk and leaf, and the season. Whether 

 ripe or green, it should be secured in the stook before frost. 

 The grain will not perfect itself after the leaves and stalks 

 have been frozen ; and the fodder is nearly worthless. It may- 

 be said with truth, perhaps, that the leaves and stalks are in 

 their most valuable condition for harvest while they contain 

 all tlieir albuminoids and phosphates, and before these mate- 

 rials are transferred to the grain ; but they are still quite 

 rich in nutritive elements when the grain is in the condition 

 just described. They will then have changed their dark green 

 to a shade of straw-color, the lower leaves and the tips of 

 some of the upper ones will have begun to shrivel, and the 

 whole crop is in condition to harvest with the greatest profit. 

 Harvesting our larger varieties of corn, that will yield from 

 seventy-five to eighty bushels to the acre by cutting it at 

 the roots, is not child's play, but hard, laborious work ; and 

 sundr}^ expedients may be resorted to, to lighten and hasten 

 the process. The precise method pursued will be determined 

 somewhat by the after-use which is to be made of the land, 

 and the character of the help employed. If the field is to be 

 sown to winter grain, and before the husking of the corn 

 and the removal of the stooks, the folloAving method will be 

 the easiest and the quickest : Determine by the rows of corn 

 the line on which the first row of stooks shall be placed, and 

 there cut four rows of corn, and lay them in one row of bun- 



