CHAPTEE X. 



HTDIAN OOEN AS A FOEAGB PLANT. 



Digestible nutrients and fertilizing constituents. 



234. Concerning Indian corn. — Indian corn (maize) is the im- 

 perial agricultural plant of America. This giant annual grass 

 reaches a height of from seven to fifteen feet in four or five months' 

 growth, producing under favorable conditions from 30,000 to 

 50,000 pounds of green forage per acre, of which from 5,000 to 

 9,000 pounds are dry matter. If grown in a dense mass but little 

 seed forms, and we have a rank grass which cures into a bright, 

 nutritious coarse hay. If the plants are grown at some distance 

 one from another, a large yield of grain results, with excellent 

 forage as a secondary product. 



Were a reliable seedsman to advertise Indian com by a new 

 name, recounting only its actual merits while ingeniously conceal- 

 ing its identity, his words would either be discredited or he would 

 have an unlimited number of purchasers for this seed -novelty at 

 almost any figure he might name. The possibilities of American 

 stock farms in the live stock they may carry and the animal prod- 

 ucts they may turn off is measured only by the quantity of com 

 and clover which the land will produce, and this, under good 

 management, seems almost unlimited. 



235. Definitions. — To avoid confusion the term "fodder com" 

 or "com fodder," used in this book, is applied to stalks of com, 



