MEADOW PLANTS 49 



two general ways. It may be allowed to mature in the 

 field, the grain being taken away, allowing the standing 

 stalks to remain. This is known as husking the com from 

 the row or from the field. The stalks are then pastured 

 during the winter, the animals feeding upon the dead 

 leaves and upon any ears that may have been overlooked 

 by the husker. Mature cornstalks, however, have little 

 nutritive value. The other way is to cut the cornstalks 

 and shock them in the field, before the ears are mature 

 and while the leaves are yet green. The shocks remain 

 until the forage is cured and the ears have matured. The 

 ears may be husked in the field and the forage stored in 

 stacks or sheds or the shocks may be hauled to the barns 

 where the husking is done either by hand or by machinery. 

 The forage or corn-fodder produced in this way is much 

 more nutritious than that which is matured before husk- 

 ing, and the grain suffers little loss by the process. Corn 

 and kafir are sometimes cut and bound in bundles by 

 machinery, a process which lessens the labor of shocking. 



59. Other grasses producing hay or coarse fodder. — 

 Several other grasses are used locally for the production 

 of coarse hay. Some of these have undoubted merit but 

 usually must compete with the more important species 

 mentioned previously. Others are native or weedy species 

 that are utilized locally. A more complete account of 

 some of these grasses is given in Part II. 



60. Japanese barnyard millet. — Several varieties are 

 grown in Asia and have been tried in America, but with 

 little success. One variety has been advertised under the 

 name of billion-dollar grass. They require plenty of water 

 to produce crops, and in the humid regions will not com- 

 pete with other grasses. They have some value under 

 irrigation in the Southwest. 



D 



