160 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



help and finish it at once. But, because corn-fodder can usually 

 stand out several weeks without damage, the farmer puts off 

 securing it, and works along, with insufficient help, till finally 

 winter catches him with half his crop out, and gives him double 

 work to secure an inferior article. Often the deterioration in 

 quality is more than would have paid the entire expense of 

 husking and putting in barn or stack. I believe that no farmer 

 can afford to leave an acre of corn-stalks in the field ; the waste 

 alone in the barn-yard is worth half the cost of saving the fod- 

 der, as there are few better absorbents than corn-stalks. My 

 plan is to hire a gang of men, and put the work through as 

 quickly as possible after the corn is in a condition to crib. 



I spoke of binding with rye-straw. We grow a small piece 

 of rye each season for this express purpose, and cut it when in 

 blossom, as this gives us a tough, elastic band, and we do not 

 scatter rye over our fields, as we are sure to do if the grain has 

 been allowed to ripen; and, as we usually seed with wheat on 

 the land where corn has been cut up, we do not want a mix- 

 ture of rye. 



There is no point that needs more careful watching than the 

 binding of fodder, and it is wise to select one of your best and 

 most careful hands for this part of the work rather than to have 

 the huskers do it. The bundles should be medium-sized, and 

 bound near the middle. Rye-straw is long enough, so that a 

 single band will make as large a bundle as is convenient to 

 handle ; but I prefer to turn half the straw of which the band 

 is made, so as to have the band of equal size throughout. A 

 band made in this way is much less likely to break than if the 

 heads are all one way. 



There is no product of the farm that can be so easily stacked 

 to turn water as corn-fodder. I prefer to put up medium-sized 

 stacks, from seventy-five to one hundred shocks to a stack, so 

 as not to expose much fodder to the weather in feeding. It can 

 be fed directly from the stack, or a stack can be moved into the 

 barn. All that is necessary to make it turn water is to keep the 

 middle full, so that the bundles will have a good slope to the out- 

 side of the stack, and take pains in topping out. 



