ANIMAL GROWTH AND NUTRITION. 269 



corn whole is liable to pass the system undigested. Experi- 

 ments at the Maine Agricultural College with the hog have 

 shown that a hundred pounds of whole corn is not as effica- 

 cious as a hundred pounds of corn-meal. I think the differ- 

 ence just about paid the miller. The cost of husking, going 

 to mill, and toll, would be, for a good acre, ten dollars. If 

 the whole corn-plant was fed in proper combinations with 

 other foods, and pigs followed the stock, I am inclined to 

 think the practice would be economical. Some one has 

 adopted the practice of running the stalk with unhusked 

 corn through rollers to crush the seed, and thus feed it, and 

 reports great satisfaction. 



Mr. Philbrick. I should like to ask one question, and 

 that is with regard to the value of the corn-crop. If it is 

 more valuable for feeding dry when it has matured, why 

 would it not be more valuable for putting into the silo when 

 it has matured ? Whv is it that we are oblisfed to. cut corn 

 for the silo just at the point when it begins to glaze ? 



Mr. Sanborn". Mr. Cheever said yesterday (and you 

 know he has had great experience with forage plants) that 

 he had come to the conclusion that he had better sow his 

 forage crops so thinly that they would mature, and then feed 

 them out. That bears very directly upon this question. Now, 

 we need not plant our corn so thickly that it will not mature. 

 Why not plant it thin enough so that it will? I am inclined 

 to think that is the better way. That is my opinion. 



Mr. . Then you would not get twenty-five tons to 



the acre. 



Mr. Sanborn. You will get as much of the dry mat- 

 ter. I think that is the better way. You will have less to 

 handle in the silo. As your crop matures, it grows less in 

 green weight, but the dry matter is heavier : therefore, if 

 you allowed it to mature, you would save handling so much 

 weight. There might be a question of its keeping as well. 



Mr. Hersey. I have had my mind made up as to what 

 I had better do myself; and that is, to plant corn, let it get 

 ripe, harvest it, feed the corn and the fodder to the cows, 

 and, if there is a surplus, raise pork and sell it. I have felt 

 that by so doing I should be sure of not having to pay out 

 money. If I build a silo, I reason in this way : I have got 

 to pay out several hundred dollars to start with, and then, 



