HARVESTING OF MAIZE 255 



The husker and shredder, which has now come into con- 

 siderable use, ehminates the labor of husking and puts the 

 stover in a condition to be easily handled. It may be stored in 

 the barn or even put into a stack, but in order to keep, the 

 stover must be thoroughly dry at the time of husking. Itinerant 

 machines go from farm to farm in many localities husking either 

 by the day or at a fixed price per bushel. Threshing machines 

 have sometimes been used for threshing maize fodder. The 

 chief objection to the threshing machine is that it shells the 

 grain, which at that time usually contains too much moisture to 

 be stored in this manner. 



Where beef cattle are fattened, the maize fodder, generally 

 called "shocked corn," is fed without being husked, thus sup 

 plying concentrated food and roughage at the same time. 



343. Topping. — Removing that part of the culm or stalk 

 above the ears instead of cutting and shocking the whole plant 

 has been somewhat wddely practiced in both the North and 

 South Atlantic States. 



The Pennsylvania Station^ found that by topping, 1,050 

 pounds of stover were obtained at a loss of 540 pounds of ear 

 maize, as compared with allowing the maize to ripen and 

 merely gathering ears. Mississippi Station,- as the result of 

 three years' trials, found a net loss in feeding value of more 

 than twenty per cent. Seven other stations show an average 

 loss of thirteen bushels per acre, w^hich was "more than the 

 feeding value of the 'fodder' secured." At the Arkansas 

 Station,^ neither topping nor pulling reduced the yield of grain 

 so much as cutting and shocking the whole plant w^hen ears 

 were just past the roasting-ear stage, as shown in the following 

 table : 



1 Penn. Rpt. 1891, pp. 58-60. 



2 Miss. Bui. 33 (1895), p. 63. 

 8 Ark. BuL 24 (1893), p. 121, 



