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FARMER'S REGISTER— CORN-STALK FODDER. 



[The positions referred to above, are not precisely 

 as there stated. It is not asserted that the limestone 

 soils of Virginia generally contain no Umc, but that 

 they contain none in the form of the a/rioHf/ic, which 

 is most usual, and in which form it would be supposed 

 to be present. Neither is it said that the oxalic acid 

 exists in most of the soils of Eastern Virginia — but 

 that some vegetable acid does, which if not the oxa- 

 lic, is composed of similar ingredients, and may easily 

 by some of nature's operations, be converted to the ox- 

 alic acid. 



But even with these corrections, we are unable to 

 give any answer to the inquiries, more satifactory than 

 this — that no good chemists have yet applied their la- 

 bors to investigate these subjects — and but very few 

 have been induced to cast a thought upon them, by 

 the reasoning presented in the work referred to above, 

 the existence of which is scarcely known to men of 

 science. But there have been recent chemical discov- 

 eries serving to maintain the doctrine of vegetable acid 

 in soils, information of which has reached this country 

 since the publication of the Essay on Calcareous Ma- 

 nures, and which will be tpioted at length in the forth- 

 coming second edition — one of the firstcopics of which 

 will be sent to our correspondent, as more explanatory 

 than any thing that could be stated separately in this 

 place. 



But even v.'ith those recent lights, furnished by Ber- 

 zelius and other chemists, the subject of acid in soils 

 is still involved in much difficulty and obscurity, and 

 needs, and would well repay, the labor of investigation 

 of any who can bring the science and operative skill 

 necessary for tlie task. That the author of the essay 

 referred to is most desirous that this should be done, 

 and, that his assumptions should be properly and 

 strictly tested, has been stated in every publication 

 on the subject, from tlie earliest to the last.] 



From the Farmer and Gardener. 

 CORJV-STALK FODBER. 



In some late numbers of your "Farmer and 

 Gardener," I read with much pleasure a detail of 

 the management of the corn-stalk as a food ibr 

 cattle, &c. First induced to turn my attention to 

 this subject bj' tlie (hflerent communications to be 

 found in the "Farmer," for some years back, I be- 

 gan in 1830 to test the value of the reluse of corn, 

 when subjected to the process of steaming. I was 

 not long inventing a strong, rough apparatus ibr 

 my purpose, which succeeded well, and in which 

 I prepared about twenty bushels at once. Pre- 

 vious to this, I had, however, liillen on a plan of 

 saving my corn and stalUs, &c. somewhat difler- 

 ent from my neighbors; but in a way that tiie co- 

 lumns of your valuable paper Jiad been long la- 

 boring to persuade the corn |)lanters of the coimtry 

 to try fairly, viz: to cut down the stalks at tlie 

 ground, at a certain stage of maturity, and at one 

 eflbrt to cure corn, stalks, bhules, &c. in the field. 

 I bad seen this fust jiracticed on the south branch 

 of the Potomac, as far back as 1812: and about 

 1817, I deterniined to try tlie process in this sec- 

 tion of the Union, not beinw able to discover any 

 solid reason why it should not succeed as w-ell 



here as on the south branch of the Potomac, or 

 elsewhere; but indeed compelled to believe, li'om a 

 recollection of the climate I was in, that it must 

 succeed here much better. In 1817, 1 tried six 

 acres— cut it down at the ground, about a week 

 alter the blades were ready lor stripping. I found 

 a little shrinkage in the grain, but I felt satisfied, 

 that as my corn was not like Pinder's Ftazor, 

 "made to sell," but to eat, that what Avas lost by the 

 shrinkage was no part of the nutritive iirincipie; and 

 I did not despair of getting over that dilficulty, by 

 further trial, and by improving the mode of pro- 

 ceeding. 



The following year I cut down five acres. I 

 began the saving of this field of corn by going 

 through it, as soon as a lew of the under blades 

 appeared ready to pull, and gathered and brought 

 them home, throwing them in an old out-house to 

 cure, and which, by a little turning over, I readily 

 eliected. 1 will remark here, that this five acrea 

 was a piece of corn on which I was trying the et- 

 fect of rotten cottonseed as a manure, by planting 

 lour stalks in tlie hill, on light land, at the distance 

 of five feet by four. On this field I had determined 

 also to try the full efii?.ct of an economical manage- 

 ment, in saving the result of labor bestowed on 

 the earth — "Save all" Avas my motto, and I liter- 

 ally saved every blade. 



Before my corn required a second pulling of 

 blades, I found the shuck on the ear in that state, 

 which authorised, I believed, the next step, antl 

 the principal one I had in view, the new mode of 

 saving the balance by one "coup de 7na!n.''^ The 

 result of observation and reflection induced this 

 determination, viz: that in the saving process, the 

 mode of stacking the corn-stalks that would permit 

 them to cure the most gradually would certainly 

 admit the least lost by shrinkage from evaporation, 

 &c. To effect iliis, I selected four strong, careful 

 hands, to cut and lay down, taking eight rows at 

 a through. On getting to tiic end of the rows, 

 they turned round, and gathered together sixteen 

 hills, each bringing to one who attended the stack- 

 ing. As each man placed his armful on the ground 

 the butt ends were pressed by him as far into the 

 earth as possible, throwing the tops together, so 

 that wlien the sixteen hills were brought together 

 at the tops tlie mass presented a sugar-loaf appear- 

 ance, spread Avell at the bottom, to admit the en- 

 trance of air — tying at the top with a bandage of 

 crab grass found among the corn, and twisted into 

 a small rope in a few minutes. In this way I cut 

 and stacked my field. On the 10th day 1 found 

 by an examination of the inside of the stacks, 

 that the whole was cured in a way that I could not 

 have exceeded by any other process, although 

 the weather had been rainy occasionally. I haul- 

 ed the whole home, and packed it away under 

 open sheds, and in old out houses. In this state 

 it continued, until winter's bleak and stormy weath- 

 er admonished us that in-door business was to be 

 attended to; when all hands went to stripping "corn 

 and fodder fi'om stalks." In doing this, I observed 

 the following order, viz: each individual threw his 

 ear of corn, as he pulled it oil, behind him, and 

 his stalks on one side, laying them down with at- 

 tention to regularity; and the fodder on the other 

 — as soon as he hati an armful of stalks to remove, 

 he rose and placed the stalks in a ]iile, casting the 

 fodder into another depository. All this precau- 

 tion, as regarded the stalks was to ha\e them in a 



