FOOD FROM CURED FODDERS 21 5 



and idle horses, may sometimes form a part of the ration 

 of working horses. Pound for pound, good stover has been 

 found to have a feeding value about equal to timothy. 

 Shredding stover will usually insure a larger consumption 

 of the fodder by cattle and horses, and the same is true of 

 running it through a cutting box. Feeding tests have 

 shown that an average acre of corn stover well preserved is 

 fully equal in feeding value to an average acre of timothy 

 hay. 



Sorghum fodder. Sorghum has proved valuable as a 

 fodder in regions too dry for the successful growth of corn. 

 But where corn may be profitably grown, it is not probable 

 that it will supplant the former as a fodder plant since it is 

 more delicate than corn when young and it also involves 

 more labor to keep it clean in the early stages of growth. 

 In certain areas of the dry West, it is much used as a fod- 

 der plant, but in states further east it is not prized so highly. 

 The feeding value of sorghum, judged from the standpoint 

 of nutrients, is much the same as that of corn with the dif- 

 ference that sorghum has more sugar and less starch. Con- 

 trasted with corn fodder, sorghum will in many instances, 

 produce a larger tonnage per acre, is not so easily harmed 

 b- exposure when harvested, and is more palatable because 

 of the high sugar content that it contains. But it heats in 

 the stack much more readily than corn, and after the stalks 

 have frozen and thawed out again, the juices still remaining 

 in them become more or less acid to its detriment as a fod- 

 der. Its highest feeding value occurs in the period between 

 the maturing of the crop and the advent of hard freezing 

 weather. It may be also made into good ensilage if allowed 

 to become practically mature before putting it into the silo. 



By cattle, young and old, sorghum, especially when of 

 fine growth, is much relished, when fed from early maturity 

 until the ground freezes solid. To obtain fine growth, it 

 must be grown thickly in rows not distant, or on the plan 

 followed in growing grain. It is usually fed to cattle by 

 drawing it from the shocks or cocks in the field where it 



