148 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



a considerable amount of expensive hand labor, and 

 careful experiments show that the practice reduces 

 the yield of grain from two to three bushels per acre. 

 Sometimes also the tops above the ear are cut and 

 shocked until dry. The Northern practice of cutting 

 and shocking the entire stalk, afterwards shucking 

 out the ears and utilizing the stover as fodder for 

 cattle, is but little practiced at the South. This is 

 perhaps partly on account of the heavy winter rains 

 which injure the shocked corn and fodder, but the 

 falls at the South are usually dry enough so that a 

 large amount of the crop could be utilized in this 

 manner. The silo for preserving green corn fodder 

 is but little used at the South. 



All of these methods, however, require a consider- 

 able amount of laborious and expensive hand labor. 

 With the perfection of modern machinery it is now 

 possible to avoid this and to handle a corn crop very 

 economically and so as to secure from it the fullest 

 possible food value. The crop is allowed to get a 

 little more mature than is usual for cutting and 

 shocking. It is then cut with a corn harvester which 

 ties the stalks in small bundles. These are set up 

 into shocks to cure, and when thoroughly dry they 

 are hauled to the barn and are run through a shredder. 

 This machine slits the stalks up lengthwise into thin 

 shreds, in which condition the entire stalk is readily 

 eaten by cattle. At the same time the ear is snapped 

 off by the machine and is husked and shelled, the 

 cobs coming out of one opening and the shelled grain 

 at another. This almost entirely does away with 

 hand labor in harvesting and storing the corn crop. 



