GREEN CORN-FODDER FOR MILCH COWS. 293 
and especially when it was cut in an immature state—before it blossomed—the stock 
did not like it so well, and it did not seem to do them as much good as when it had 
more space during its growth, and was allewed to stand till the ears commenced 
forming. 
I think Dr. Loring did not state how his corn-fodder was grown; but recollecting 
that I had seen it growing on his farm in very close hills, I wrote an article designed 
to show that the nutriment contained in this fodder depended much as to whether it 
was, while growing, so much exposed to the light and air that tho juices of the plant 
would be properly elaborated. Since that I have heard from other persons who have 
had more or less experience with “ fodder-corn.” 
Mr. Gibson, the superintendeng of the farm of Messrs. Walcott and Campbell, New 
York Mills, New York, stated to me, while on a visit to the farm a short time ago, that 
he tried various things as green food for the stock keptin the stables and yards, giv- 
ing the preference to lucern. He made an assertion in regard to corn-fodder similar to 
that attributed to Dr. Lorine. 
I will mention one fact, which of course you will take for whatever you think it 
worth, in regard jo sweet corn-fodder as compared with the fodder of other varieties 
of corn. I have known several instances where cattle, having been kept on the fodder 
of sweet corn until the crop was all eaten, refused for some time to eat the fodder of 
dent corn in the same stage of growth, and grown in the same way. They would eat 
the fodder of flint corn better than they would that of the dent, but did not like either 
as well as they did sweet corn. ; 
Fodder-corn has been grown and used to some extent on our college farm, but no 
attempt has been made to experiment with it. 
Of those whose opinions adverse to the use of green corn have been 
quoted, Dr. Nichois, of the Boston Journal of Chemistry, considers 
green corn-fodder a “kind of food for animals not profitable to raise ;” 
and makes the following statement of his reasons for the opinion: 
It is not so because the maize plant is not rich and succulent, but because the con- 
ditions under which it is grown are unfavorable to its perfect and healthy develop- 
ment. Thenatural juices of the plant are richly saccharine at maturity, when grown 
in hills in open space, with plenty of air and light; but grown in mass, in close con- 
tiguity, this principle is almost wholly wanting. To test its comparative value with 
the green stalks taken from the corn-field, I fed to my herd of cows in August a 
weighed quantity of the corn-fodder, so called, night and morning, for one week ; 
they were then changed to the field corn-stalks, and the gain in the milk product at the 
end of the week was a little moré than 8 per cent., and there was also a manifest im- 
provement in quality. As a rule, all vegetable productions grown under conditions 
where the chlorophyl, the green coloring principle of plants, cannot be produced in ail 
its richness of tint, are abnormal, immature, werthless. The absence of this principle 
in the whole of the lower portion of the corn-plant grown in drills, or frem broadeast 
sowing, indicates its watery, half-developed character. 
While entertaining a very poor opinion of the immature and eolor- 
less corn, the editor of the Journal of Chemistry apparently yields to 
none in his estimate of the value of mature and dry corn-fodder, includ- 
ing both the blades and butts, as appears from the following: J 
The fodder is a very important item connected with corn-raising. We always re- 
move the top stalksin a green state and allow the corn to ripen in the open field. The 
“butts” or lower stalks after husking ave taken good care of, as we depend largely 
upon them to keep up the flow of milk in our herd of cows during the winter. They 
are pitched over, a moderate quantity of salt is diffused through them, and then they 
are mowed with alternating layers of wheat straw. Their value, when carefully 
preserved is but little less than that of good upland hay, estimating ton for ton. 
There is much saccharine and nitrogenous material in the “ butts,” and animals 
will eat them if they are kept sweet and clean and properly fed. Out of four tons 
fed to one herd the past winter, not five hundsed pounds have been rejected, and we 
have neither chopped nor steamed the fodder. To raise corn, we must plow in the 
autumn, and spread on the manure green {from the cellar in the sprivg. We must 
harrow 36 in well, and have the soil well pulverized. In the hills, place a handful of 
the mixture of bone and ashes so often alluded to; this mixture must not be thrown 
in all in a mass, and the seed dropped directly upon it; let it be thrown around the 
hill and a little soil scattered over it, and npon this place the seed. Select a field 
which is neither very wet nor dry, and with this treatment every farmer can raise corn 
profitably. 
OPINIONS OF LEADING FARMERS. 
Hon. Horatio Seymour, of Utica, New York, president of the Ameri- 
