FARMERS' REGISTER— ON GATHERING FODDER. 



485 



until altered by him, it was with great diffi- 

 cult)-, he could get 60 bushels chafi'ed in an hour 

 with her.* 



In giving the number of bushels, we are to be 

 understood, as intending dean wheat — an allow- 

 ance having been made in measuring, more than 

 sufficient, in our judgements, to meet any diminu- 

 tion in a subseciuent limning. 



The number of hands emjiloyed while thrash- 

 ing the first stack was — one man hand who drove 

 all the lime; one man hand who fed all the time; 

 two Avho handed wheat to the feeder; one man 

 chiedy engaged in oiling the machine; one man 

 and a boy to load the cart at the stack and drive to 

 the machine; one boy cutting tlie bands of the 

 sheaves, assisted b}' the man who oileil, and two 

 men attending to clearing the separator and re- 

 moving the straw — in all eight men, and two boys: 

 afterwards, in thrashing the second stack, and 

 while ffinning, one of the men vvho bad been eni- 

 pioyed in handing wheat to the feeder, was ab- 

 sent. 



E. F. CHAMBERS, 

 THOMAS WILKINS, 

 HIRAM BROWNE, 

 BARTUS TREW. 



I5th Sept., 1S34. 



[The necessary exclusion of tills communication 

 from No. 6, (for want of space) has given us time to 

 write to Baltimore to inquire about the improvement 

 of the fan abovementioned. It is described as very 

 simple — and perhaps our description may enable others 

 to use it. The improvement by Mr. Nicols consists in 

 two boards being placed one above the other, and 

 across the fan, and between the vanes which force 

 the wind, and the riddles. The parallel edges of the 

 boards next the vanes are about nine inches apart, and 

 six or seven towards the riddles. They form a kind 

 of long funnel through which all the wind is directed 

 to the riddles and its force concentrated precisely 

 where it is required.] 



ON THE LOSS CAUSED BY THE USUAL, MODE 

 OF GETTING FODDER FROM CORN. 



Brookfield, (Henrico,) Qth Nov. 1834, 

 To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



In some of the foregoing Nos. of your Register, 

 several articles have appeared, depi'ecating the 

 S3^stem generally adopted, of pulling fodder from, 

 and cutting tops off' corn stalks, before the corn 

 itself is sulFiciently matured. That this S3'stem is 

 highly injurious to the corn, and an injudicious 

 mode of management, cannot be doubted. Some 

 writers on this subject, have estimated the loss of 

 corn, sustained by the stalks being thus premature- 

 ly mutilated, at ti'oin eight to twelve bushels per 

 acre; how near either of these estimates may ap- 

 proximate to the real general loss, I cannot from 

 experience or observation, determine. Notwith- 

 standing the many articles which have been writ- 

 ten on the subject, it does not yet appear that any 

 of them have obtained that attention amongst 

 farmers to which they were justly entitled; and it 

 is with a conviction of the importance of this mat- 

 ter to agriculturists, and Avith a view of inviting 



* The improved fans will be manufactured and for 

 sale by Sinclair and Moore next spring. 



their attention to an affair where their interests 

 are so deeply concerned, that I presume to offer 

 a few cursory remarks. As this is the season whea 

 the hopes which the husbandman had founded on 

 the success of his corn crop will either be realized 

 or disappointed, they may perhaps, in addition to 

 the more practical remarks of other writers, be the 

 means of eliciting a greater degree of attention to 

 a matter of no trifling importance to the interests 

 of every farmer. 



The observations which I have been enabled 

 to make on tlie corn crop under my care, and on 

 that of several surrounding farms, where the prac- 

 tice of pulling fodder and cutting tops is pursued, 

 has been sufficient to convince me that the sys- 

 tem is a bad one; I and have no hesitation in say- 

 ing, that the iarmer who adojjts this system, loses 

 one-fifth of what his corn crop would j^roduce 

 him were the blades and tops allowed to remain 

 on the stalks until the coi'u became perfectly ma- 

 tured. 



To a person even slightly acquainted with vege- 

 table organology, it must be self-evident, that the 

 leaves and tojis of a corn stalk form one of its prin- 

 cipal conservative parts,and as such,have important 

 functions to perform in the vegetable economy of 

 that plant: and that these functions are indispen- 

 sably necessary to the growth and porlection of 

 its rej)roductive organs cannot be doubted. Admit 

 this, and it naturally follows, that to deprive the 

 plant of these organs before they have fully com- 

 pleted the functions which nature allotted them to 

 perform, or before the whole vegetable economy 

 of that plant is completed, and you inflict on it a 

 positive and irreparable injur}^ If corn, or any 

 other grain, be prematurely deprived of parts per- 

 forming functions so indispensably necessary to its 

 propagation, as are its tops and leaves, wliether 

 such deprivation be inflicted systematically or by 

 accident, shall so far tent! to diminish the quantity 

 of its produce, and it follows as a necessary con- 

 sequence, that the quality even of that diminished 

 quantity suffers in the same ratio — thereby dimin- 

 ishing its nutritive qualities and weakening its re- 

 productive powers, 'and by this meansperpetuating' 

 the evil on every succeeding crop: a good crop 

 cannot be expected fi'om bad, or imperfectly ma- 

 tured seed. 



Corn may justly be considered an indispensable 

 article of food in this section of country, and one 

 of the principal sources of profit to the f firmer. 

 Why then, should it alone, of all cultivated grains 

 and grasses, be subjected to this unnatural mode of 

 treatment? — for, that its tops and leaves are less 

 essential to the properly maturing of its seed than 

 that of any other plant, cannot be admitted. The 

 farmer therefcire, who adopts this system, is not 

 only guilty of a direct infringement on the estab- 

 lished laws of nature, but also of inflicting a j)osi- 

 tive injur}' on himselfj inasmuch as he is the active 

 agent in so far destroying the remunerating part 

 of his corn crop, without receiving any adequate 

 compensation; tor, under no circumstances will the 

 fodder compensate him tor the loss sustained in the 

 quantity of his corn. Let him calculate his loss 

 of corn at one-fifth, (which I think, rather under 

 than above the refd loss) add to this, the expense 

 of pulling and curing his fodder,even under the most 

 favorable circumstances, and he will find the ba- 

 lance heavily against him. I am aware, that on 

 many farms fodder is considered an indispensable 



