110 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



When the fields are all cut wagons drive between the rows of shocks 

 and the scattered, fallen ears are picked up and hauled to the feed-lots for 

 the stock on grass. This completes our field operations. 



Now as to feeding. We feed all of our cattle, many of our horses not 

 in use in winter, all of our breeding ewes until near lambing time and 

 part of our feeding sheep nothing in the grain line but shock corn — and 

 by shock corn I mean the whole corn plant as cut and thrown out from 

 the corn binder in bundles. This corn is in most cases drawn from the 

 fields — enough to last about a week at a time — direct to the feed yards 

 and roughly stacked from the wagon by the hauler in small piles just 

 outside to be fed out as required. That for the stock wintered in open 

 sheds in the fields is hauled direct to the feed racks or if the ground is 

 frozen is distributed on the hillsides each day where it is eaten by the 

 stock and the manure distributed where most needed. We keep most of 

 our young stock in what we call ''ranches" situated in the farthest fields 

 because we want to save the hauling of the feed to our home barns from 

 these far-off fields and the return hauling of the manure in spring. Only 

 enough corn is stacked in the fall to make it unnecessary to send teams to 

 the field in bad weather. It is simply a reserve supply. 



For sheep and cattle we would never husk corn, for lamb feeding we 

 would feed ear corn though we prefer husked ears to that in the shock 

 for lambs, they seeming not to handle the rough husks well. We do, as 

 a matter of fact, feed much shelled corn to lambs — I am going to be 

 perfectly honest with you — principally because our combination hay 

 and grain racks in our main feeding basement were specially made for 

 shelled corn. We endeavor, however, to simplify this shelling along with 

 the other corn-handling operations. There are no shellers or grinders 

 on our farm other than the stock in the yards. Such shelled corn as we 

 use is prepared in this way : A hard- wood floor 100 feet long and 12 feet 

 wide is filled by dump cart from our temporary cribs in which our ear 

 corn is stored direct from the busker. It holds about 500 bushels of ears 

 and when the flooring is on a sharp shod team is exercised upon it going 

 back and forth until the ears are broken and shelled into a loose mass 

 of pieces of cobs and shelled corn. A fanning mill is placed at one end 

 of this floor and the whole bulk run through as needed — the perfectly 

 cleaned shelled corn being shoveled to the spouts which convey it to the 

 feeding basement below while the broken cobs with a few kernels left 

 upon them are placed before the stock to be picked over at their pleasure. 

 We can shell the 500 bushels in half a day with one team and the work 

 is splendid exercise for the horses when bad weather forbids outside 

 work. This is the simplest, most reliable method of shelling corn of 

 which I am aware. My friends sometimes ask, why don't you get a gaso- 

 line engine or a wind power mill and have a sheller and grinder? My 

 answer is, I cannot afford to do so. 



We offer no objections to the methods of those who may differ from us 

 in handling the corn crop. In fact we are looking for a simpler method 

 still to carry out the details of our work. Our method makes little 

 excitement or show, costs little and makes us money. It suits our con- 

 ditions and fattens stock economically and well. I might say that we 

 are in about the position of the country laborer compared with the 

 laborer in the city who gets much more money perhaps — handles more 



