THE STALK CROP. 193 



By most farmers who make use of the cob, it is 

 compared with the straw of the cereals, and seems to 

 be considered equal to them on a general average. 

 The editor of the Rural Annual considers it equal to 

 good wheat-straw. Some others compute its value to 

 be quite equal to that of the best oat-straw. If we 

 take the average value of the straw of wheat, oats, 

 barley, and rye, compared with hay as a standard, it 

 will give three hundred and fifty pounds of the former, 

 equal to one hundred pounds of the latter. That is to 

 say, the value of good hay is three and a half times 

 greater than the mean value of those straws. If this 

 ratio is taken to represent the value of the corn-cob, as 

 compared with that of hay, the estimate would seem to 

 be, at least, a reasonable approximation to the truth. 



NUTRITIVE YALUE OF CORN AND COB MEAL. If we 

 now calculate the value of the grain, by referring it to 

 the same standard, we shall then be able to see how the 

 cob compares in value with the corn, and also to de- 

 termine the value of the corn and cob meal, as com- 

 pared with that of hay. 



The grain of Indian corn has been variously rated 

 as to its actual worth for feeding. This must neces- 

 sarily depend, in some measure, upon the animal to 

 which it is fed, and in part upon the object for which 

 it is given. Its general nutritive value, according to 

 Prof. Johnston, as indicated by experiments made by 

 different persons in different countries, is to that of 

 hay as one to two ; five pounds of it being given as 

 equal to ten pounds of hay. But when the object is 

 to produce beef, butter, mutton, or pork, its effective 

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