168 INDIAN CORN. 



weight of the grain. Somewhere between these ex- 

 tremes the average ratio is to be found, and may be 

 computed near enough for necessary purposes. 



In some estimates reported to the Patent Office 

 from different sections of the country, the ratio was 

 found, on an average, to be about eighty pounds of 

 stalks to a bushel of corn. Some farmers, whose 

 opinions are based upon careful investigation, have 

 found the product of stalks to range from eighty to 

 one hundred pounds to the bushel of corn. In some 

 investigations made by the writer, the diversity was 

 still greater, but giving a mean ratio of nearly ninety 

 pounds of stover to a bushel of grain. But this pro- 

 portion will scarcely hold good for the usual practice 

 of cutting and curing. If, then, we assume the ratio 

 of the grain to the stover to be twenty-five bushels to 

 the ton, and for the more prolific varieties thirty bush- 

 els, the estimate will be found very near the average 

 experience of farmers. 



In comparing the relative acreable values of the 

 grain and stalks, the case is reversed, and the grain is 

 entirely ahead. The estimates of different farmers, 

 in regard to the money value of the stalks, as com- 

 pared with that of the grain, vary as widely as their 

 modes of treatment. Some of them compute the 

 stover at less than one-fifth the value of the grain, 

 and others place it as high as one-third. When the 

 stalks are in good condition, the latter estimate is 

 probably much nearer the truth. 



It will always be found that the most successful 

 cultivators place the highest value on their corn-stalks, 



