CORN. 159 



and an average yield of fodder per acre of 4,229 pounds. The 

 average yield of corn on the fifteen plots was 58 bushels per 

 acre. I have made quite a number of experiments in feeding 

 corn-fodder, which show that two-thirds of good, dry corn-fodder 

 is eaten by the stock. Now, if we grow fifty-five bushels of 

 corn to the acre, it will give us a little over two tons of fodder 

 to the acre ; deduct for the waste one-third, and it leaves us, in 

 round numbers, 2,600 pounds net of fodder from our acre of 

 corn. It is very probable that the chemist would tell us that 

 this was worth much less than hay, but I have always found it 

 more palatable to the stock, and that they would thrive as 

 well on it. 



The question to be decided, however, seems to me, not "Is 

 an acre of corn-fodder worth as much as an acre of hay?" but, 

 "Is it worth saving?" The cost of securing the acre of hay, 

 counting the rent of land, will be not less than eight dollars, as 

 the work must be done at a busy, pushing time, when wages are 

 high. This is allowing three dollars for cutting, curing, and 

 hauling to barn or stack, and five dollars per acre for rent of 

 land and taxes. I can secure an average acre of fodder in barn 

 or stack for three dollars. If we put one hundred hills in a 

 shock it gives twenty-seven to thirty shocks to the acre, and, 

 unless the corn is very heavy, I can get it cut for four cents a 

 shock, and have never paid more than five cents for this sized 

 shock. At these prices our cutters will average two dollars a 

 day. We can get the corn husked and the fodder bound in 

 bundles for from one to two cents more a shock than we pay 

 for cutting, or an average of six cents for a hundred hills, and 

 certainly not more than one-third of this should be charged to 

 the fodder, as it would cost two-thirds as much to husk the 

 corn if left standing on the stalk. The cost of hauling, which 

 will depend somewhat on the distance from the barn or stack- 

 yard, does not average above fifty cents a load, or one dollar 

 per acre. 



I think the great trouble with farmers in securing their corn- 

 fodder is that it is a job that can be postponed. They know 

 that the hay crop must be secured, and they engage plenty of 



