PREPARING FOODS FOR FEEDING 361 



liquid manure more perfectly than when long, and the ma- 

 nure is also in a better condition for being easily handled 

 and promptly applied to the land as soon as made. But it 

 will not be found profitable, as a rule, simply to run fodders 

 through a cutting box and to feed them without admixture 

 in order to increase consumption in the same. 



When large quantities of meal are to be fed in the ab- 

 sence of silage, the plan is frequently adopted of charring 

 only enough of the fodder to furnish bulky materials with 

 which it is mixed before feeding it to ruminants, in order 

 to insure its most thorough mastication while undergoing 

 rumination. The plan is to be commended where the facil- 

 ities are present for carrying it out. On some farms, the 

 small cereal grains are threshed and chaffed by the one op- 

 eration, all the straw grown upon the farm being cut in that 

 way. Where the facilities are present for storing the chaffed 

 material, the plan is excellent. The blowers now used 

 on threshers will be greatly helpful in such instances as aids 

 in storing such food. 



Shredding fodder means tearing it into strips or 

 shreds by machines made for the purpose. It is used only 

 in preparing such coarse fodders for feeding as corn and 

 the sorghums. Shredders husk the corn and separate the 

 ears in the same while shredding the stalks. Opinions dif- 

 fer greatly as to the value of shredding, some regarding 

 them with much favor, and others who have used them, 

 have ceased to use them longer. These differences in opin- 

 ion are due largely to a difference in the conditions under 

 which they have been used. They can be used with more 

 advantage in a climate naturally dry than in one naturally 

 moist, as in the former the shredded fodder is much less 

 liable to spoil through fermentation than in the latter. 



Prominent among the benefits from shredding are the 

 following : ( I ) The corn is husked, and thus made avail- 

 able for feeding as desired, which may not be possible in 

 the absence of shredding. (2) The fodder is put in that 

 condition which insures a much larger consumption of the 



