362 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



stalks, and (3) it makes it possible to store the fodder 

 where it is safe from injury from storms. The following 

 are chief among the objections to shredding: (i) The ac- 

 cidents while running the shredders have been unusually 

 numerous, but possibly the element of risk, in this respect, 

 may yet be eliminated. (2) In moist climates it has been 

 found difficult to keep the shredded fodder from moulding. 

 But this may be obviated by mixing with straw. (3) The 

 expense is said to be too great in some instances at least to 

 justify the outlay and (4) the lower portions of the stalks, 

 when very large and coarse, according to some authorities, 

 will not repay the energy expended in digesting them. The 

 difference in the character of the stalks before shredding 

 as coarse or fine, probably accounts for the great differences 

 reported in the amount of fodder left unconsumed when 

 fodder is shredded. 



Corn fodder is sometimes prepared for feeding by run- 

 ning the corn while yet unhusked through a threshing 

 machine on the approach of winter. To this method of 

 handling corn, the same objections apply as when shredding 

 it, except that which applies to cost. But in addition to 

 these objections are the large portions of stalk unreduced, 

 and the broken condition of cob, which makes it difficult to 

 preserve it. 



Blending foods mechanically. Foods are frequently 

 blended in what may be termed the mechanical sense, in or- 

 der to insure a larger consumption of those which, though 

 plentiful are less palatable than the foods blended with them. 

 The utilization for food of the straw of cereals and of corn 

 and sorghum stalks, may not be a question of much mo- 

 ment at the present time in many parts of the United States, 

 but the time is coming and is not very far distant, when in 

 none of the states will such products be destroyed as now, 

 as the best means of getting rid of them. 



Where the supplies of hay are scarce and of fodders 

 plentiful, when both are run through a cutting box and 

 mixed before being fed, a much larger consumption of straw 



