152 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



SHREDDING THE FODDER FROM CORN CROP. 



Our chief objection to this is the extra expense of handling the crop. 

 Then, too, there is no advantage for feeding in the dried and cured corn 

 that the ensilaged corn does not possess, and there is the temptation to sell 

 the grain instead of feeding it. Wherever we can add value to a crop by 

 further handling and feeding it is always more profitable than selling the raw 

 product. For many generations the South sold raw products only and other 

 people manufactured their staple. The result was, as it always is, that a 

 people selling only raw products never get permanently rich. Adding labor 

 to a product rapidly increases its value. 



Some years ago I visited a section of Nebraska for the purpose of study- 

 ing the sugar beet industry. I talked there with an old German farmer, who 

 was evidently a thrifty man. I asked him what was the usual price there 

 for corn, as corn seemed to be their main reliance aside from little patches of 

 beets. He told me that it was then worth 25 cents per bushel. I expressed 

 the opinion that there could be little money in corn at that price, and he 

 quickly replied, "I sell no corn, but my neighbors do. I feed all mine to the 

 pigs, and they carry themselves to the depot, and I get 50 cents per bushel 

 for my corn/ 7 I told him that he was right, but that he might do even better, 

 for I noticed that at all the grocery stores in the town near him they had no 

 bacon except that from Chicago, some of it possibly made from his hogs and 

 sent back there for sale; while I had no doubt that well cured home-made 

 hams and bacon, properly smoked, would meet a ready sale at better prices 

 than the Chicago meat, as was certainly the case where I lived. It evidently 

 struck the German, and I have no doubt that he experimented in that line. 



But to return to the shredding of the corn stover. I feel that it is a 

 matter about which I have little business to write, as I never shredded any 

 in my life. But from what I have seen I feel confident that there is in the 

 practice no improvement on ensilage, and a great deal more labor involved 

 in the storing and feeding, and more danger of loss in the shredded fodder 

 than in the silage. 



But, nevertheless, if T did not use the silo, I would certainly shred the 

 fodder; as the next best way to get the full feeding value of the corn stover. 

 What we are after is to feed in the most economical way, and get the best 

 returns for the corn crop. On the fertile prairies of the West men may per- 

 haps profitably sell corn as a raw product, but I am persuaded that in all 

 the eastern section it is not the best use to make of the corn crop, and that 

 we can not only get a larger price for the corn in the shape of animal pro- 

 ducts, but can thereby render the corn crop one of the greatest aids in restor- 



