THE STALK CROP. 191 



cattle and sheep fed on the corn and cob meal gained 

 more in weight than those fed with meal and cut 

 straw. I do not know how much value there is in 

 oat-straw ; but, so far as my experience goes, I think 

 the corn-cob a little the best. I have also tried this 

 corn and cob feed mixed with cut stalks, and when the 

 mass is well soaked in hot water, it makes one of the 

 best feeds I have ever used. One of my neighbors 

 says he thinks this mixture almost equal to pure 

 grain for fattening beef or making butter. It seems 

 to me that if these three parts of corn are made fine 

 and mixed in the right quantity, it must make a most 

 excellent kind of feed for nearly all purposes. 



" All the above experiments were carefully made 

 by weight and measure." 



But there is another consideration commending to 

 farmers the use of this feed. By employing a portable 

 mill or crusher, of which there are several kinds in 

 successful use, they will find both economy and con- 

 venience in grinding their ears at home, instead of 

 shelling the corn and sending it to the mill. It has 

 been estimated that the expense of shelling the corn, 

 conveying it to the mill, paying the toll, and trans- 

 porting the meal back to the farm again, is sufficient 

 to pay for crushing twice the quantity at home. That 

 is, twenty bushels of the grain alone, ground at the 

 mill, would cost as much as forty bushels of grain, 

 with the included cob, ground at home. In the opin- 

 ion of some, the gain is even more than this. 



According to this estimate, the farmer who uses 

 a crushing-mill not only gets his cobs ground for 



