CORN AND THE SORGHUMS FOR FORAGE 163 



will determine the amount of grain the shocks carry, so that the feeder 

 can properly adjust the proportion of grain to roughage by supplying 

 either ear corn or corn stover, as the animals may require. 



Corn stover. — The forage which remains after removing the ears 

 from shock corn has a higher feeding value than is usually believed. 

 Stover produced in the northern portion of the corn belt is superior in 

 nutriment and palatability to that grown in the South. As soon as 

 fairly well cured, stover should be placed under cover or stacked, 

 rather than left to waste away in the field. When fed with alfalfa or 

 clover hay, good corn stover may often profitably form half the 

 roughage allowance for fattening cattle or sheep. For stock cattle 

 and breeding cows it may be utilized to even a larger extent, and it is 

 also satisfactory for breeding ewes. While corn stover alone will not 

 quite maintain the weight of growing steers during the winter, stover 

 and legume hay with no grain will make fair gains. This cheap feed 

 is also a satisfactory roughage for horses doing but little work. J\Iost 

 of the roughage of dairy cows should be more palatable and nutri- 

 tious in character, but corn stover may often be economically fed even 

 to them. 



Shredding or cutting stover or fodder. — When shock corn is 

 husked by machinery, the stover is usually cut or shredded at the same 

 operation. Corn fodder is also often passed thru a feed cutter before 

 feeding. This finer material is no more digestible than the uncut 

 forage. However, cutting or shredding usually reduces the waste, 

 as it induces the cattle to eat a greater part of the stalks, unless they 

 are coarse and woody. The cut or shredded forage is also easier to 

 handle, and the waste is in better shape for bedding. 



Corn for soilage. — Corn ranks high as a soiling crop on account of 

 its palatability, the high yield of nutrients, and the fact that it remains 

 in good condition for feeding for a much longer period than many 

 other crops grown for soilage. On farms lacking summer silage, feed- 

 ing corn forage in the green stage as soilage should become general, 

 for during the late summer and early fall pastures are often too 

 scanty to enable animals to do their best. In the case of dairy cows 

 such a shortage of feed will cause a decrease in milk flow, which often 

 cannot be recovered by subsequent liberal feeding. An acre of ripen- 

 ing corn fed in early fall may return twice as much profit as if it were 

 held over until winter. For early feeding sweet corn may often be 

 advantageously used. 



II. The Sorghums 



In the dry-farming districts, from Nebraska to Texas and Arizona, 

 the sorghums, both the saccharine sorghos and the non-saccharine 



