GREEN CORN-FODDER FOR MILCH COWS. 297 
corn-fodder so as to last jest one month, at the end of which time we compared 
accounts of butter and cheese produced, and the product of my dairy during that 
month exceeded his during the same time to the value of $50, with cheese at 54 cents 
per pound and butier at 123. My cows were in better flesh than his and continued to 
give an increased amount of milk some days after the corn-fodder was gone. The 
experiment, crude as it was, of course satisfied me that green corn-fodder paid well to 
feed to milch cows, and I rarely failed after that, so long as I managed a dairy, to have 
two to four acres of corn-fodder. 
I tried various methods of growing, as sowing broadcast, three bushels to the acre, 
and finally decided that two bushels per acre, sown in drills twenty inches to two feet 
apart, and cultivated by running a shovel-plow through between the rows when the 
corn was about six inches high, and again when it was from eighteen inches to two 
feet high, produced more and better fodder than any other method of cultivation tried 
by me; and this method, with me, always produced about double the fodder to the 
acre that broadcast sowing would do. Theageat which it was cut was not considered 
very material; we generally began to feed as soon as the corn was full-grown, some- 
times before, and continued to feed until frost. Of one thing I became convinced from 
repeated experiments, which was, that the best way to feed, unless a full feed is given, 
that is, all the cows can or will eat, is to feed at night, and I finally adopted this 
method. I had my corn-fodder cut and Joaded on a wagon, before the cows were 
stabled, for the night’s milking; then, while they were being milked, the fodder was 
scattered in the pasture, and as soon as the night’s milking was done the cows were 
allowed to go and eat their fodder, after which they would lie down and ruminate until 
morning. After the morning’s milking, not being accustomed to receive any fodder, 
they would range the pastures as usual. By a division of the same amount of 
fodder, giving one-half at night and the other in the morning, the cows would be 
discontented, seeking mischief during the night, and during the day would be 
waiting and watching for more, and would not range the pasture as usual for 
what they might find there; so that while one full feed a day was a decided 
advantage,two half-feeds were of no benefit, but rather a detriment. When feed in 
the pasture is very short, by reason of a drought, two full feeds are necessary, but when 
itis only intended to piece out the pasture, one full feed a day, given after the night’s 
milking, is the proper method. 
Mr. Joseph Pelton, of Lansing, Michigan, who has had forty years’ expe- 
rience in feeding corn, deems its value highest for feeding between tas- 
seling and earing, and refers to the marked difference in its juice at 
different stages of its growth, it having a sourish, bitter taste before 
tasseling, aud a very sweet and pleasant flavor after that period. He 
claims to have grown, in 1859, near Nashville, Tennessee, upon a single 
acre, $4,000 pounds of green corn, which made seven tons of cured 
fodder, by planting two kernels ina place twelve inches apart each way. 
1t was cut when the ears were set and the kernels forming. He consid- 
ers oats, fed as the head appears, the best soiling material with which 
he has experimented. 
Mr. J. M. Case, of Cold Spring, Wisconsin, thinks evergreen corn, 
planted in drills, “Sone of the best crops for soiling.” . 
Mr. C. W. Wilder, of Evansville, Wisconsin, says that fifty farmers con- 
tribute milk to his factory, that most of them feed green corn, and those 
who do feed it bring more milk than those who donot. Evergreen sweet 
corn, planted three feet apart each way, with five to seven stalks to the 
hill, is preferred. : 
Mr. B. A. Griffin, of Dubuque, Iowa, deems green corn-fodder the cheap- 
est and best material for cattle food, after the 25th of June. He also 
regards it as the best fodder for winter use, cut before frost and put up in 
small stacks in the field. 
Mr. William Richards, ef Momence, Ilinois, who milks about one hun- 
dred cows, drills about twenty-five acres of corn for soiling, feeding green 
28 much of it as the character of the season may render necessary. He 
finds that it inereases the flow of milk about one-tenth. He feeds by 
Scattering on the grass in pasture, net commencing before the tasseling 
of the corn, and sometimes not till autumn. In 1870 he found it desira- 
ble to feed earlier. He prefers to sow in drills, a practice which saves 
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