HARVESTING 



195 



cribs. Livestock are then allowed to pick over the fields and eat 

 much of the remaining crop. In more intensive farming the stalks 

 are cut either by hand or by machine when the corn is ripe, or 

 nearly so. It is put in shocks varying in size according to the 

 climate, and well tied so it will not blow over or be seriously in- 

 jured by the weather. The ears are husked from the shocks and 

 stored in cribs and the stalks are tied in larger shocks or put in 

 stacks for stock roughage during the winter. Figure 135 shows 

 the work being done by machinery. 



Corn harvesting machines are very valuable where much corn 





FIG. 136. On a Florida farm at silo-filling time. (Agriculture and Life.) 



is grown. The machine ties the stalks in small bundles, which are 

 easily gathered by hand and placed in shocks. 



In some southern states it is still a common practice to go 

 through the corn field just before the crop is ripe and pick off the 

 leaves and perhaps out off the top of the stems above the ears. 

 This fine fodder is tied in small bundles and dried for stock feed. 

 Later in the year the ears are either husked in the fields or snapped 

 off and stored in cribs with the husks on. The practice of snapping 

 corn in southern latitudes is due to the attacks of the grain moth. 

 When husks are left on, the damage from this insect is not so great, 



