TIIXDRAXCES TO SUCCESSFUL FARMIXCI. Ill 



I h:ivc. I have raised twenty-five acres of corn-fodder the 

 present season. I have forty head of cattle to-niuht fod- 

 dered with it; a portion of those are milch cows, and their 

 milk will ixo to the city of Boston in the morning. I state 

 what I know when I sa}'^ that I can make milk as cheaply, on 

 my light soil in Plymouth County, as a farmer in Worcester 

 or Middlesex can make milk on his heavy clay soil. He 

 may raise his timothy and I will raise my corn. Let it not 

 be told that this State Board of Agriculture, of the good old 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, discourages the culture of 

 corn. 



Mr. Slade. I don't know whether the gentleman aimed 

 his shaft at me or not ; but the Board of Agriculture does 

 not set its face against raising corn or corn-fodder, or using 

 the products of corn, or anything of the kind. I rose a few 

 moments ago to repel that heresy that has been taught from 

 time to time, that a ton of corn-fodder was equal to a ton of 

 herdsgrass. Everybody rj.iises corn-fodder. I am feeding 

 my cattle, I am sorry to say, on corn-fodder, because I can- 

 not afibrd to feed them on herdsgrass. I have to raise a 

 crop of corn-fodder and so does everybody else ; ])ut I will 

 give four tons of corn-fodder for two tons of herdsgrass any 

 time. I would like to do it. 



Mr. Sessioxs, This is rather a fruitful subject. It seems 

 to me there is corn-fodder and there is other corn-fodder. I 

 might agree wdth brother Slade's position if he would let 

 me select the corn-fodder, and I doubt not that I should 

 agree with brother Grinnell's position if he w^ould let me 

 select the corn-fodder ; for every one knows that if corn is 

 cut up after it is too ripe, or after it is frost-bitten, and 

 shocked in a shiftless w^iy, so that the weather will destroy 

 the quality of it, it is poor stuff; it is like straw ; it is like 

 herdso-rass that has stood too long and been wet several 

 times, and has been housed in a shiftless manner. But if 

 corn is cut early, shocked up, properly seasoned, and housed 

 in the right season, the portion of corn-fodder which well- 

 fed cows will eat is worth, in my opinion, pound for pound, 

 as much as the very best of English hay. No man that 

 knows about feeding cows will feed them all corn-fodder, 

 if he can get anything else for them. Cows need a 



