CHAPTER VI. 



TIME WHEN FORAGE PLANTS CONTAIN THE GREATEST AMOUNT 

 OF NUTRITIVE VALUE. 



A GREAT advance has been made within a few years in 

 agricultural knowledge ; and among the most valuable 

 facts learned has been this, that grass contains a greater 

 amount of nutrition when in blossom than at any time 

 before or afterwards. 



What is true of the common grasses, viz., timothy, red- 

 top, orchard-grass, and clover, is equally true of corn, 

 which is but a gigantic grass. 



If, then, a stalk of corn contains at the time it blossoms 

 more nutritive value than at any subsequent time, how 

 foolish and wasteful to let it stand for the ear to form at 

 the expense of the stalk, while at the same time great 

 loss is going on from the leaves and the stalk, as is the 

 case with other and smaller grasses. 



The seed formed in the head of a stalk of timothy or 

 other grass while very rich and nutritious in itself 

 does not by any means compensate for the loss which 

 has been sustained by the stalk and leaves while the 

 seed is forming and ripening. 



The loss which is sustained in the ripening process is 

 not all. By expending a great amount of labor the corn 

 is shucked and put in the cribs. There it suffers more or 

 less from the depredations of rats, mice, and other vermin. 



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