THE STALK CROP. 167 



an eminent degree ; when cut fine, and mixed with 

 Indian meal, are eaten by cattle with much avidity, 

 and eaten clean, butts and all. Some farmers think 

 that really good stalks are worth about as much as 

 the best hay. When we consider the weight of them 

 to be obtained from an acre of heavy corn, they are 

 probably more than equal, taking into account the 

 respective quantities per acre." 



But let us now examine the acreable product of 

 this stover. We may then be able by a comparative 

 view of the quality and amount of it, to form a rational 

 estimate of its total value, and also of the proportion 

 it bears to the value of the grain. 



There are few agriculturists who know, with any 

 degree of accuracy, how many bushels of grain, and 

 fewer still, perhaps, who are definitely aware how 

 many tons of stalks their maize crop yields per acre. 

 Yet without this knowledge they can form no ade- 

 quate judgment of what the crop is worth in the ag- 

 gregate, and can have but a vague idea of what a 

 bushel of the grain, or a ton of the stalks has cost them. 



RATIO OF THE STALK TO THE GHADT. The acreable 

 yield of the stover, and the ratio it bears to the grain, 

 have been variously estimated by practical men. 

 These estimates differ according to climate, variety 

 of corn, etc. With the smaller and prolific varieties, 

 when the yield is large, the ratio sometimes falls as 

 low as sixty pounds of stalks to a bushel of grain. 

 On the other hand, some of the large varieties have 

 been known to produce, especially in warm latitudes, 

 a growth of stalks equal to three or four times the 



