8 



PULLING OR STRIPPING THE LEAVES. 



Thruoiit the Southern States the leaves of the corn plant dry up 

 before the ears are mature, and the custom prevails of stripping the 

 leaves from the stalk while they are still green and the ears immature. 

 At least 8 experiment stations in the Southern States have investi- 

 gated the influence of this practise on the yield of corn and in general 

 report a decrease of 10 to 20 per cent. The earlier the work was done 

 the greater the loss. Redding, of Georgia," concluded that ''pulling 

 fodder" is only expedient under the most favorable circumstances; 

 but where it is done the best practise is to strip the blades, from and 

 including the ear blade downward, at about the usual time of pulling, 

 and in a week or ten days to cut off the stalks above the ear. Besid,es 

 adding largely to the A'ield of stover this method is believed to be more 

 expeditious. 



The Florida Station^ reports that "pulling fodder" has the effect 

 of loosening the husks on the ear before the grain becomes hard, thus 

 promoting the ravages of the weevil. 



CORN CUTTING WITH KNIVES. 



The unsatisfactory results which followed when corn was topt or 

 stript, together with the extension of corn growing, led the farmers to 

 seek a better way of securing fodder. This was found in the method, 

 continued to our own time, of cutting the stalk close to the ground at 

 a time when no damage is done to the ripening grain and while, at the 

 same tiine, considerable of the saccharine juices still remain m the 

 stalk. 



The implement first used for corn cutting was the hoe, or some- 

 thing akin to it, and it continued to be used as late as the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century. This was rather heavy and awkward to 

 handle and the work of harvesting was slow and exhausting. The 

 more progressive farmers discarded this crude implement and sub- 

 stituted the corn knife. 



The diary of one early planter near Philadelj)hia tells the wa}^ in 

 which the corn knife was first used on his farm. "The use of a 

 sharpened blade for cutting corn was first begun by a negro who was 

 rather lazier than the rest and always sought to escape the harder 

 labors of the farm. lie wrapt one end of a broken sithe l)lade with 

 a cloth and, using this for a handle, was able to cut three times as 

 much corn as he had cut with the hoe, and that with less fatigue." 



^lany kinds of blades were used for the ])ur])ose, but among them 

 the sithe blade was most largely employed. It was customary to cut 

 these blades in two ]:)arts. The knife made from the j^oint of the 

 sithe was considered the better. It was somewhat liirhter in weight 



a Georgia Sta. Bui. 23, pp. 81-82. b Florida Sta. Bui. 16, p. 8. 



