THE STALK CROP. 195 



Philosophy teaches us that things, apparently triv- 

 ial in themselves, sometimes derive from circum- 

 stances a consequence unperceived by the casual ob- 

 server. Some idea associated with quantity or num- 

 bers, some relation to a system or class, some fact il- 

 lustrating an undeveloped possibility ; these, or similar 

 causes, frequently rescue from insignificance an object 

 deemed useless or paltry, and invest it with an unsus- 

 pected interest, dignity, or value. 



The farmer who casts out the corn-cob from his 

 crib, as a thing utterly worthless, and fit only to be 

 trodden to the earth, is probably unconscious of the 

 utility it is capable of, and still less aware of the ex- 

 tent and value of the class it represents ; little sus- 

 pecting that the corn-cobs raised every year in the 

 United States, contain a sufficient amount of nutri- 

 ment to winter seven hundred and fifty thousand cat- 

 tle, and are worth in the aggregate not less than fif- 

 teen million dollars. 



NUTRITIVE YALTJE OF CORN AND COB MEAL COM- 

 BINED WITH CHAFFED STALKS. Let us now examine 

 the economical value of the feed we have been con- 

 sidering, when further combined, as it frequently is, 

 with the stover of corn finely chaffed. Let us take 

 the three several products of the corn crop the grain, 

 the cob, and the stalk and suppose them to be com- 

 bined in the same proportions in which Nature pro- 

 duces them. 



We will take, for illustration, the product of one 

 acre, assuming the yield to be one hundred bushels 

 of grain, at fifty- six pounds to the bushel. The pro- 



