THE STALK CKOP. 169 



and for this good reason, that their method of cutting, 

 curing, and feeding is such as to impart to them a 

 value that many farmers have little conception of. 



A few examples will be sufficient to show how the 

 estimates of practical men vary on this subject. A 

 farmer in Shelburn, Mass., who realized seventy dol- 

 lars for his corn, computed his stalks at twelve dollars 

 and fifty cents. A farmer of Northfield, Mass., whose 

 acre of corn yielded fifty dollars, estimated the stalks 

 at ten dollars. Another in ISTorthfield, with a corn 

 crop worth forty dollars, rated the stalks at ten dol- 

 lars. Daniel Johnston, an experienced farmer of 

 Johnsontown, "N. Y., considers his corn-stalks worth 

 ten dollars a ton ; and in a crop valued at one hundred 

 dollars, he estimated the stover at thirty dollars, and 

 the grain at seventy dollars. Matthew Waldron, a 

 stock-farmer of Diamond Yalley, E". Y., regards his 

 corn-stalks of more value than his best hay for cattle 

 of all kinds, and especially for cows, and rates them 

 at more than thirty per cent, of the value of the grain. 



It has been said, and appears by no means impos- 

 sible, that the stalks of Indian corn, taken in the most 

 perfect condition^ and converted into milk and but- 

 ter, according to the best principles of feeding, may 

 be made to realize a value quite equal to one-half 

 that of the grain. 



The quantity of stalks produced on an acre may 

 be calculated, when the amount of grain is known, 

 according to the ratio above laid down, by taking 

 twenty-five bushels of grain to represent a ton of the 

 stover. The quantity that an acre is capable of pro- 

 8 



