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GREEN CORN-FODDER FOR MILCH COWS. 295 
will turn upon this point. He said further: ‘ Corn-fodder is succulent, 
easily digested, sweet, and nutritious; but, at least before it has com- 
menced to ear, its nutriment is not sufficiently concentrated. If we 
could take away one-third of the water and one-third of the indigestible 
woody fiber, the part that remained would be of much greater value. 
than the whole. The water we can easily get rid of, and if we cannot 
get rid of the excessive. bulk, we can feed out sufficient corn-meal with 
the fodder to bring it up to the desired standard.” 
Mr. &. W. Stewart, of New York, deems the profitable use of green . 
corn as a summer food for milch cows a settled fact, ifany questions in 
practical agrictlture can be considered settled, He states that hundreds 
of instances may be cited where green corn has produced the highest 
yield of butter. ; 
Mr. Frank D: Curtis, of Charlton, Saratoga County, New York, re- 
gards green corn-fodder excellent material for soiling, and for use in 
autumn in a partially dried state, when it is “ very nutritious and almost 
invaluable” for young animals of the farm. He recommends planting 
in drills in cultivating. 
Mr. W. L. Locke, jr., of Irasburg, Vermont, last August fed corn-fodder 
to his cows, and increased thereby the daily quantity of milk from forty- ’ 
five to fifty-one pans, or 13 per cent., and the cream had a better color. 
The editor of the Maine Farmer reports a case in which the pasture 
was dry and short, and corn-fodder fed almost exclusively. The flow of 
milk.was increased at once, and made a fair average for the season, not- 
Withstanding the unusual proportion of fodder given, while neighbors’ 
cows not thus fed-shrunk one-half in quantity during the dry season. 
Mr. Robert Gibson, farm manager of Wolcott & Campbell, of New York 
Mills, Oneida County, New York, in a letter to Mr. Sanford Howard, 
expresses a preference for lucern over corn-fodder, as follows: 
Although I agree with you in regard to corn-fodder, I go a little farther, and say 
that when it is grown very thick and fed early—that is, before it is in full tassel—it is 
the poorest green feed I ever used. In its very best stage it is not so good as lncern ; 
that has been my experience. I have no object in speaking so highly of lucern except 
that of inducing persons who wish to soil stock to give it a trial. It can be cut four 
or five times a year. This season I cut it five times. By giving a coat of manure in 
the fall, it will keep in the ground four or five years, consequently saving the expense 
of plowing, seeding, &c., every year. 
The editor of Hearth and Home has found that drill-sown or broad- 
east corn is uniformly eaten with avidity, and that it as uniformly in- 
sures a large and full flow of milk. 
Mr. William Ramsdell, of Milford, New Hampshire, attests the preva- 
lent practice among dairymen in his vicinity of feeding green corn-fodder 
during August and September, in the fuil belief that it inereases the 
flow of milk and improves the condition of the animals. He makes 
the following statement of the result of an expertment with millet: 
Some two years ago Dr. Loring assured us in his public address that corn-fodder was of 
novalue in producing milk, and advised the raising of milletasa substitute, which would 
not only increase the flow of milk, but could be raised at much less expense. In ac- 
cordance with this suggestion I, with some of my neighbors, last year and this have 
tested the experiment to our satisfaction, and shall return to the raising of fodder- 
corn. But I would say that much of the value of fodder-corn depends upon the time 
at which it is cut. My experience has led me to raise fodder-corri as follows: I sow in 
drills (in preference to broadcast) early in the month of May for my first cutting, drop- 
ping the seed from three to four inches apart, and commence cutting in August, or 
when the corn begins to tassel. If cut before this stage it has much less nutriment. 
I disapprove of the practice of topping when half grown, with the expectation of a 
second crop. I sow at intervals of two weeks, to the month of July, and hoe until the 
corn completely shades the ground; and if I have a surplus I cut and dry it before the 
season of frost. I approve of cutting the day before consigning it to the barn, in order 
