158 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



the rows and get the earth back to the roots of the corn. I do 

 not think any rule can be laid down as to how many times corn 

 should be cultivated. In some seasons three workings would 

 give better results than six in others. I believe that as a rule 

 we give too little work, and that the majority of farmers stop 

 the plows too soon. There are many farmers who think that it 

 injures corn to plow it after the tassels show, but if it has not 

 been neglected, and the land allowed to become hard and weedy, 

 I think late cultivation beneficial. Mr. L. 1ST. Bonham, a well 

 known agricultural writer, has experimented in this matter, and 

 states that he has found plowing beneficial, even when the pollen 

 was formed and falling from the tassels. 



Corn-fodder and Fodder-corn. There is no one point 

 in which the opinions of farmers, East and West, vary more 

 than in the estimate they put on corn-fodder. In estimating the 

 Talue of his corn crop the New England farmer always takes the 

 fodder into consideration, and values it often at fifteen or twenty 

 dollars an acre sometimes more ; while in the West but little 

 value is attached to it, and, as often managed, the farmer dam- 

 ages his land more by getting what he does from it than it is 

 worth to his stock. I have, for many years, been a firm be- 

 liever in the value of corn-fodder. I have often, for several 

 years in succession, wintered my horses and cattle without any 

 hay. I have always found my stock to relish the fodder better 

 than hay, and to eat it with less waste ; and, after over twenty 

 years' experience, I have decided that the fodder from an acre 

 of corn, if properly saved, is worth as much as all the timothy- 

 hay would be that would grow on that acre. I have been con- 

 firmed in this opinion by many practical farmers who have had 

 large experience in feeding corn-fodder. 



The average yield of hay per acre in the United States is 

 but little above one ton, and rarely, if ever, reaches one and a 

 quarter tons. 



I have before me a table giving the result of fifteen trial 

 plots of corn, from each of which the product was weighed, the 

 grain and stalks separately, and the result shows an average of 

 a little over 104 pounds of fodder to each 100 pounds of corn, 



