358 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAY 10, isia, 



AND HOBTICULTURAL RKGISTER. 



Boston, VVf.dnesday, May ]0, 1843. 



CORN FODUER. 



Our rejidcrs will rfimember that wo L-aid much last 

 season upun sowing corn for fodder. We tlioughl well 

 of this crop iheti, and we continue to think well of it 

 yet. Upon land in good lilth, we suppose that usually 

 nearly or q'jite 30 lonB, undried, can be. obtained per 

 acre. When dried, it is probably reduced to one fourth 

 of its weight when green. But even then ihe result is 

 large ; foi 7 or 8 t )ns per acre of stulks, so small and 

 good tliat cattle will consume thoin without waste, is a 

 large product. Such stalks, well cured, the cattle ate 

 much more freely, and this too without much waste, in 

 our barn the last winler, than they did the stalks upon 

 which corn had ripened — though these latter wero as 

 well cured and as good flavored, apparently, as any tliat 

 we ever handled. 



But corn fodder generally will be less grown for win 

 ter feeding than for summer and early autumn. At the 

 time in August and September, when the pastures are 

 very liable to be short, the corn fodder works in very 

 advantageously. No other growth that we have any 

 acquainiance with, does so well. Those farmers, there- 

 fore, whose pastures are peculiarly liable to be pinched 

 by drought, will do well to soio corn, and to sow some 

 early, that it may be in readiness for use as soon as the 

 pastures grow short. 



The best course of procedure is not yet seliled. Some 

 prefer sowing broadcast and cutting with the scythe. 

 The labor required by this method is small. But our 

 lands would become very weedy if thus left without 

 tillage through the summer. 'I'hough the work be more, 

 we sow in drills, and work with hoe and cultivator. 

 Thus we keep down the weeds and give the soil the 

 benefit that comes from stirring. Whether we gain or 

 lose, comp.uatively, by so much labor, we are not able 

 to say. 



Sow some corn quite soon, and then at intervals of 

 ten days or a fortnight, sow more ; and continue to do 

 this up to the 20th of June or the first of July. 



What variety of corn is best for this purpose ? Mr 

 Asa M. Holt, of Connecticut, has in part answered this 

 question in the subjoined communication. He is right, 

 we think, in preferring northern corn to southern. The 

 cattle do like the stalks of the northern best, and will 

 waste less of them. But ainong the northern corns 

 there is much variety, both as to the sweetness and the 

 /mrrfne55 of stalks. The sweet corns have a sweeter 

 tasting stalk than others, and generally their stalk is not 

 hard and brittle. Of the various kinds that we have 

 used, the Tuscarora furnishes the best stalk, but there is 

 the same trouble attending it which IMr Holt finds with 

 what he calls the tall sugar, viz ; that it very often fails 

 to vegetate. We much wish that some accurate experi- 

 ments might bo made with the several varieties, and 

 that analyses of them might be furnished. 



From what we have experienced as to their relative 

 britlleness when we have been binding up the stalks, 

 we infer that the different varieties, lake up quite diffe- 

 rent quantities of silicates, and probably they may of 

 other matters. As a general rule, we think the harder 

 and more brittle the stalk, the less the cattle like it. 

 Among all the varieties of northern corn that we have 

 worked much upon, the Red Blaze has the most brittle 

 and the poorest etulk. 



We shall be glad to hear from any of our correspon- 

 dents upon this subject of corn fodder. 



Mr Holt's letter is as fcdlows : 



Gkeen Corn Fodder. 



Mr Editor — I recollect iht^t some time since, you asked 

 for information about the relative value of the different 

 varieties of corn for green fodiler. To this inquiry I 

 then mi^ant to give you on answer at the first leisure 

 hour, but a pres-ure of other business and cares, has pre- 

 vented my doing it till this time. But as 1 think the 

 subject is an important one, and as the season for sowing 

 corn is rapidly advancing. I hasten to give you the fol- 

 lowing sketch, which should have been more complete 

 in its details, if I could have found more time to perfect it 



For a considerable number of years past, I have been 

 in the habit of sowing corn for green fodder. And 

 some half dozen years ago, 1 published in the New Eng- 

 land Farmer, a communication on the subject, stating 

 something of the amount of crop, &e. Up to that time, 

 and since that time, till the last sea-on, I sowed the tall 

 southern horse-tooth rnrn, both because it made the 

 greatest amount of stalks, and because the st.ilks contin- 

 ued green l( nger than the stalks of the northern corn, 

 before they ripened or dr'ed up. And once I paid a 

 seed dealer two dollars per bushel for that kind of corn 

 for seed, when I might have had northern corn at less 

 than half that price, because the hor.se tooth corn made 

 so much the largest omow7i( of crop. 1 had usually let 

 the horse-tooth corn stand till it was 6 or 7 feet high, 

 and nearly ready to tassel out, befiire 1 cut it. In this 

 condition we cut and fed it out. My horse and cow ate 

 it greedily for the first day or two. Aflor this, they 

 generally seemed unwilling to eat much of any thing 

 more than the leaves, and usually left all, or nearly all 

 of the stalks, and seeined unwilling to eat them. With 

 this kind of keeping, my horse did business rather bet- 

 ter than he did on drij li.iy, and just about as well as 

 he did on green hay, or grass which was fed ont to him 

 as soon as it was cut. But with either of these kinds of 

 food, he alway.? wanted grain to enable him to do much 

 business. 



The last season, however, I was so lucky as not to be 

 able to proeure the tall southern corn for sowing, and 

 consequently sowed one of the varieties of northern 

 flint rorn. Unluckily, we had used up most of our ma- 

 nure, before we prepared Ihe ground for the corn, and 

 the a?;ioun< of the crop was consequently very small in 

 bulk, when compared with what we usually obtained 

 by sowing the southern corn with a plenty of manure. 

 But when we fed out the green stalks which grew from 

 the northern corn, we thought their value was greater 

 than the value of the crop of southern corn which usu- 

 ally grew on the same spot when it was well manured. 

 And last season, when I began to cut my green corn 

 fodder, which had grown from northern corn, I gave it 

 to my horse without any grain, and he generally ate up 

 every particle which was given him — leaves, stalks and 

 all, without leaving a bit, and he continued to eat it 

 clean without wasting any of it. And what was still 

 more pleasing, I found that he was more active, and 

 gained more flesh, without grain, when fed with the 

 stalks grown from northern corn, than I ever had a horse 

 gain, when fed on stalks which grew from the southern 

 corn, with 4 to G quarts of oats daily into the bargain. 



My oldest son has made a number of trials to see 

 whether there is any perceptible difference in the taste 

 of the juice of the stalks of the different kinds of corn; 

 and he says that among the kinds which ho has tried, 

 he finds that the stalks of the sugar corn, afford much 

 the sweetest juice, and that the stalks of the tall south- 

 ern corn afford a smaller amount of sweetness in their 

 juice, than any other kind which ho has tasted. This 

 fact seems important, and well worth the allentioD of 



all those who attempt to make sugar or molasses from 

 cornstalks. 



1 do not mean to encourage the expectation of a good 

 crop of green corn fodder from poor and exhausted land 

 without manure. But last year from northern corn, and 

 with very little inauure, we had a more valuable crop, 

 though a smaller one, than we have usually had from 

 the same spot, when well manured, and sowed with 

 southern corn — consequently, when I again sow corn 

 for fodder, I intend, by all means, to sow northern corn, 

 and 1 should greatly prefer the tall, sugar corn to all oth- 

 er sorts with which I am acquainted, were it not for the 

 fact that the sugar corn is very apt to fail of vegetating. 

 In haste, yours, respectfully, 



ASA M. HOLT. 



East Haddam, Conn, May 1, 1843. 



BONES. 



We have used on our little fiirm within the last two 

 years, nearly 200 bushels of crushed bone ; and among 

 all the different manures that we have used, \^■e think 

 this the cheapest. Not that we would trust to this 

 alone; but would use it at the rate of 15 or 20 bushels 

 per acre, in connection with other manures; lessening 

 the quantity of the others, so that the expense shall be 

 no greater than though the bone w.is not applied. We 

 have tried mixing it with soil, that it may ferment bo- 

 fore it is applied to the land :— we have mixed too with 

 ashes and soil ;— also with ashes and salt ley. Besides 

 this, we have put it upon the land dry, just as it comes 

 from the cask ; and we are far from being satisfied there 

 is any need of mixing it in advance of its application to 

 the soil. We find it working immediately, and working 

 well, when we sow it broadcast just as it comes from 

 the mill, and harrow it in. Our use of it upon win- 

 ler rye, where we sowed in this way, at the time of put- 

 ling in the seed, showed the quickness of its action, for 

 in three weeks from the time of sowing, any one could 

 see a very marked superiority in the rye where there 

 were only 9 bushels of dry bones applied per acre, over 

 that where no bone was applied. The results of tliat 

 trial were briefly this. Where no bone was used, we 

 had only 7 bush, and 8 qls. of rye per acre : where 9 

 bushels of bone were applied, we had 14 bushels and 17 

 qls. per acre : where the bone was at the rate of 16 bush- 

 els, the rye was 19 bushels and 12 qts. per acre. By 

 fair trial we ascertained that each bushel of bone gave 

 us the first year three additional pecks of rye. On other 

 crops the bone seemed to do equally well, but in all oth- 

 er trials, where the bone has been used, we have used 

 also other manures and therefore could not so well as- 

 sign the exact effects of each. But we would not have 

 the inference made that bone is to do equally well on 

 all soils. Where the land is clayey or heavy, its bene- 

 fits are generally small. But on loamy lands, that are 

 not in a high state of cultivation, its action is usually 

 good. The easiest way to ascertain whether the bone 

 would be useful on your own lands, is to get a bushel 

 or a cask and try it. 



If the farmer is compelled to purchase any kind of 

 manure, we think he would do as well with bone as 

 any thing else, unless his soils ore very rich, or heavy 

 and strong. 



Correction. — Week before the last, we inserted a com- 

 munication from Mr Wm. Salisbury, of Medfield,in 

 which he was made to say, that he took matches and 

 dry " birch" to burn out the borer. He writes us that 

 he has never had much love for " the birch" since the 

 acquainiance he had with it in his boyhood. He meant 

 to B?y that he took a dry brick for igniting the match. 



