SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 83 



varieties have no marked advantages, as the yield is 

 usually less than that of other sorts, and there is no 

 evidence that they have a decidedly higher nutritive 

 value. The system of cultivation practiced is probably 

 of greater importance, in most cases, than the selection 

 of the variety to be grown, provided it is adapted to the 

 locality. 



Fodder corn should never be sowed broadcast, but 

 planted in drills, or hills, at such a distance apart as 

 will admit of convenient cultivation. 



The soil should be in high condition and carefully 

 prepared for seeding. The smoothing harrow may be 

 profitably used, to check the growth of weeds, until the 

 plants are several inches high, and thorough after-culti- 

 vation should follow. As to the distance between the 

 rows, no definite rule can be prescribed, as the larger 

 varieties require more room than the smaller sorts, but 

 all need nearly as much space as when grown as a field 

 crop with grain as the leading object. One of the most 

 satisfactory crops I have raised was of medium Western 

 dent corn, in drills four feet apart, and yielding, in gross 

 weight, but twenty tons per acre, but this included 

 eighty bushels of well matured shelled corn that gave 

 the crop a high feeding value. 



It appears to me to be decidedly the best practice to 

 plant corn for a fodder crop, and for ensilage, so that it 

 will have abundant room and light for the vigorous 

 growth of the lower leaves and the development and 

 approximate maturity of the ears. The ensilage of such 

 a crop, under proper conditions, cannot fail to give satis- 

 faction as to the quantity and quality of the feed obtained 

 from a given area. 



The importance of maturity, or a close approximation 

 to maturity, in the plants fed to animals, will be best 

 seen by some practical applications of the principles of 

 physiological science to the intimate relations of plant 



