144 



Cob and Corn Crusher. 



Vol. VII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Cob and Corn Crusher. 



At the late meeting of the Philadelphia 

 Agricultural Society, there was exhibited a 

 machine for crushing or grinding the cob 

 with the corn for cattle provender ; a most 

 valuable improvement, and well deserving 

 the favourable notice of every one engaged 

 in the pursuits of husbandry. It has by 

 some been questioned, whether the cob alone 

 contains sufficient nutriment to render it 

 worth the labour and expense of grinding ; 

 but with me there is no doubt about it, and 

 it is only a matter of surprise that every one 

 should not long ago have been convinced of 

 the fact by experiment, which might easily 

 be made by boiling crushed cobs in water for 

 some hours, when, on straining off the water 

 and setting it to cool, it will be found to form 

 a jelly. 



At the above mentioned meeting, I had the 

 pleasure of conversing with the intelligent 

 inventor of the machine, Mr. Byerly : he is 

 a tanner, and the cob-crusher is made after 

 the plan of his bark-mill. On inquiry re- 

 lating to the quantity of nutriment con- 

 tained in the corn cob, he informed me, that 

 near his bark-mill was a heap of cobs that 

 had been thrown out as useless, when a poor 

 woman of the neighbourhood, whose only 

 cow was almost the only means she had of 

 supporting her family, came to ask for some 

 cobs, and that he would pass them through 

 the bark-mill as food for the cow ; this he 

 did, and his petitioner came regularly after, 

 during the winter, to get her supply of 

 crushed cobs. At the end of the season, he 

 went to see the cow, and found her in the 

 finest condition, her owner assuring him that 

 she had been fed entirely on the crushed 

 cobs, boiled in her iron pot, by which she 

 had been enabled to support almost entirely, 

 herself and children, by the sale of the finest 

 milk and butter ever seen ! 



In an essay on Indian corn, by P. A. Browne, 

 Esq., see p. 187 2nd vol. of Cabinet, it is 

 said, " The cob may be ground to fatten cat- 

 tle, and an oil may be extracted from it." It 

 is also said, " Peter Miner, of Albemarle co., 

 Virginia, made the following experiment; he 

 had ten bushels of meal of the corn and cob 

 ground together, weighing 3G7 lbs., and ten 

 bushels of pure corn meal subjected to the 

 process of distillation, and the result was, 

 18 gallons of spirit from the latter, and 13 

 gallons from the former. Now, if the corn 

 cobs had been destitute of all value, the pro- 

 duct of the former, estimating the quantity 

 of pure corn meal at five bushels; which is 

 the general rule, to allow one half in bulk 

 to the cob, ought to have been nine gallons 



only ; but thirteen gallons having been ob- 

 tained, four of them must have been extract- 

 ed from the cob." It is worthy of a passing 

 remark, it is added in a note at the bottom 

 of the page ; " If they wish to cultivate In- 

 dian corn for fodder alone, or for making 

 sugar, they can deprive it of the power of 

 going to ear, and make it throw all the 

 juices into the stalks and leaves." 



I have witnessed many instances of the 

 advantages resulting from grinding the cob 

 with the com, and have never known a per- 

 son who had tried it, dissatisfied with the 

 result; it is they only, who know nothing 

 about it who object to it: at any rate the 

 ground cob must be as good as bran, and an 

 addition of one or two thousand bushels of 

 bran to the means of feeding stock during 

 the winter, would not be thought lightly of 

 by any, one would suppose. It has been re- 

 marked, the cob is peculiarly adapted and 

 conveniently situated for grinding and mix- 

 ing with the corn; asimilating with it, and 

 forming a meal peculiarly congenial to the 

 health of animals ; giving just the due pro- 

 portion of coarse food to mix with the fine ; 

 a necessary consideration in the feeding of 

 stock ; and withal so cheaply supplied, that 

 one is at a loss to conceive how the thing 

 has so long been neglected. The objec- 

 tion to grinding the cob with the corn 

 while it is new, could be obviated, by kiln- 

 drying the ears the fore part of the season ; 

 but this would not be requisite more than a 

 couple of months or so, after harvest, as by 

 that time the ears will be sufficiently dry, 

 so as to allow them to be ground, without 

 danger that the meal would ferment in the 

 binn. I remember a correspondent in a for- 

 mer number of the Cabinet observes, that 

 Mr. Alexander Cooper of Jersey, has long 

 been in the custom of grinding the cob 

 with the corn, and that his stock is remark- 

 able for health and condition; and from late 

 inquiry, I find that he still continues the 

 practice with perfect satisfaction. While 

 on a late visit to one of the same family 

 at Camden the last week, I observed the 

 same mode of feeding carried out to a con- 

 siderable extent, and with complete suc- 

 cess ; the meal having been ground so fine, 

 that no one without close examination would 

 have the idea, that it was aught but meal 

 from clean corn. It is a great loss to the 

 country that every mill is not fitted for the 

 purpose of grinding the cob with the corn 

 when desirable, — would our millers think 

 seriously about it. R. Denham. 



Berks co., Nov. 18, 1842. 



Make the hogs a warm nest. Comfort is 

 cheap food for all domestic animals. 



