CORNFODDER. 209 
gave 4.7 tons, nearly one half of which was weeds, while on 
the cultivated plot 5.25 tons of clean fodder was cut. If it 
is not possible or convenient to plant so as to admit of cul- 
tivation, one must not blame the corn, or the soil, for poor 
results. Three and one-half feet is far enough apart for cul- 
tivation and proper development. The seed may be sown 
with a grain drill if one is available by plugging most of the 
tubes, or with a common garden seed drill. It should be 
sown so that the kernels are not more than an inch apart in 
the row. This will take a little over a bushel of seed per acre. 
This close or thick planting insures small stalks, which the 
cattle will eatclean, and thus makes the wholecrop available. 
The wider apart the stalks are in the row, the coarser they 
are, and the greater the waste in feeding. 
Cornfodder will grow upon new land, and may even be 
sown in the furrow, in breaking, though it will not give its 
best results under such conditions. Still, if the soil is thor- 
oughly worked down and does not dry out too much the 
yield will befair. The yields are greatly increased by manure, 
which may be freshly applied in any quantity without in- 
jury. On worn soils the effect is striking. A sandy piece 
which had been cropped since’94 without manure, produced 
in 1901, acrop of 3.7 tons, while on the same piece in that 
year an application of 10 tons per acre of manure gavea 
crop of 6.84 tons, or an increase of 85 percent. This same 
plot was again manured, and in 1902 yielded 5.44 tons 
while that not fertilized gave 2.65 tons, a difference of 105 
percent. The falling off in total yield for the plots for the 
preceding year was due to the season, which was one 
of the most cold and backward ever experienced. Corn- 
fodder will also do well on sod land, but it should be 
fall plowed. In 1898 the ‘crop was planted on spring 
plowed sod, and while it gave a good yield, the crop 
was not over half what it ought to have been, though exact 
figures were not obtained. The sod was not decayed and 
the corn suffered from lack of moisture. In 1901 this same 
field was planted to cornfodder on sod plowed the preceding 
fall. The yield was 5.05 tons per acre, due largely to the ef- 
fect of the rotting sod. The field had been cropped without 
mauure since ’95, and its fertility maintained by the rotation 
