126 



GENESEE FARMER. 



May. 



Corn and Cob Meal. 



There are few in this section of country, who 

 endorse the sweeping proscription of corn and 

 cob meal which lately appeared in your paper.* 

 We have heard the subject somewhat extensively 

 discussed, since the appearance of that article, 

 but we have yet to meet with tlie lirst individual 

 whose experience coincides with the writer's 

 views. " They say," said one man, in my hear- 

 ing, "corn and cob meal is poison to a horse ; 

 but, in my view, those horses are the worst ofF 

 that can't get enough of it to eat!" 



I would sooner trust the instinct of the animals 

 themselves, than the hasty theories, or carelessly 

 conducted experiments of any amateur farmer. 

 Why do they eat them ? Perhaps it will be said, 

 as a man is reported to have drunk a pail of wa- 

 ter for the sake of the gill of rum which it con- 

 tained, so they eat the cobs to obtain the corn 

 meal. But, then, the cases are not parallel. — 

 The appetite of the man had become depraved, 

 vitiated, and unnatural — reason itself was toppled 

 from its seat. His case was an exception, and 

 so would be the instance of an animal (an in- 

 stance yet to be reported,) which should be found 

 to hesitate over a meal tub, because of the pres- 

 ence of ground cobs. Have not our hogs and 

 cattle been observed to eat them in the rough 1 

 I have witnessed mine do .so, before the cobs had 

 become hardened by age, with evident gusto. — 

 May not the fact, that the practice is not mt)re ha- 

 bitual, be referable as fairly to the circumstance 

 that other food is generally at hand more easily 

 masticated, as to the supposition ofindigestiUlity? 



What is the testimony establishing its hurtful 

 nature 1 Assertions are, doubtless, evidence ; 

 but not conclusive proof. The courts generally 

 require, not the inference or conclusions of a 

 witness, but the particular facts within his knowl- 

 edge, minutely described. We have a right to 

 suppose that, eating so large a proportion of per- 

 fectly indigestible stuff", costiveness would be one 

 of the necessary results. Who has observed it? 

 On the contrary, do not the bowels appear more 

 loose and natural than when supplied with corn 

 meal alone? Now, if corn meal tends to consti- 

 pation, and an admixture of cob meal restores a 

 healthy state, should not the "pounded glass," 

 recouimended by our impulsive friend, be substi- 

 tuted, not for the cob, but for the corn itself? 



But, while there is a total absence, heretofore, 

 of all experience of tlie hurtful qualities of cob 

 meal, the testimony in its favor is various and 

 positive : — 



" (iriiiiling Ihe cob with the corn is said to add one-third 

 10 its v.iliie lor (liGiWn^."— Ellsworth's Report. 



'■ Kxperimpnt lias satisfied us, that a given quantity of 

 corn, nn.iitul in tlie cob. will accomplish as much as twice 



♦ Ihi! iirticle referred to by our corriisiioiiiirnt was published in 

 the Ni)veiu:Hr number of the Farmer for 1847— page 257. It waa 

 written by one of our corresponUent.s in auswer to the inquiry of 

 another. 1 he inquiry, and our roniarks thereupon arc published 

 on page 229 of the same volume.— Ko. 



the quantity fed in the ear, in fattening hogs ; provided, the 

 meal ia fermented by a mixture, for a few days, with water. 

 We would recommend that it be thoroughly ground into 

 meal , as we have found, from our own experience, a very 

 decided advantage from thi,s mode of feeding, and are fully 

 satisfied that it is not overstated." — M. B. Bateham. 



"Previous to the purchase of the crusher we averaged 

 214 ears of corn. Our stock average seven head. One 

 hundred and sixty ears [for the last two years] are now run 

 through tiie crusher. The different appearance of the 

 horses, and their better ability to work, prove, beyond a 

 doubt, that the crusher afibrds a more nutritious and healthy- 

 food. It w ill also be seen that it places to our daily credit 

 fifty-four ears of corn." — Dr. A. H. Tyson, in Am. Farmer. 



" We take the present opportunity of directing the atten- 

 tion of our readers to the great value of meal, prepared by 

 grinding corn and cob, for stock ; and from the many evi- 

 dences of practical farmers, as well as from experiments of 

 our own, we can not but press it upon the attention of the 

 prudent farmer. That there is a nutritious substance in the 

 cob, no one, we think, who has paid any attention to the 

 subject, will pretend to deny. In throwing away the cobs 

 of our corn, we have been wasting very good feed. But, 

 besides the actual economy, there is another advantage in 

 this way of feeding corn, which ought to engage the atten- 

 tion of every farmer. It is notoriously true, that the un- 

 ground grain of cum is healing to the stomach of all animals, 

 and of dilificult digestion, producing cholic and other inflam- 

 matory disorders, particularly in horses. They are deprived 

 of the benefits derived from the stimulous of distension, (so 

 proper to the health of all animals,) by being unable to eat 

 a suiilicient bulk to produce it, before they become gorged. 



" It is believed by many, that there is but very little nu- 

 triment ill corn cobs ; but as one proof to the contrary we 

 will adduce the following. A farmer in Virginia, a few 

 years since, afraid his corn crop would not be sufficient to 

 last through the winter, determined to try, and did winter 

 his horses on corn cobs alone, pounded in a common hom- 

 iny mortar with his own hands. They received no other 

 substance except long forage, as hay and fodder. Upon thie 

 thay did their work and were in good condition." — C. N. 

 Bemeiit. 



" Among the evidences of the nutriment contained in the 

 corn cob, the experiment, by distillation, of Mr. Mikor of 

 Virginia, showed that five bushels of cobs contained four 

 gallons of spirit. He also found other nutritive matter than 

 the saccharine, as mucilage and oils." — Am'rican Farmer, 

 Vol. I, p. 324. 



These testimonials might be extended. It will 

 be perceived they speak from experiment and 

 personal experience, and are from sources enti- 

 tled to consideration. That one of these, at least, 

 C. N. Bement, possess tke requisite qualities for 

 a successful experimenter, we have the testimo- 

 ny of Henry Colman : " Agriculture has not 

 in this country a more ardent friend to its im- 

 provement. His zeal is associated with great 

 exactness of observation.'" 



I am, myself, making use of cob meal alone, 

 by way of experiment ; and, although not pre- 

 pared to speak of its nutrition, I can certify to 

 the avidity with which it is eaten by poultry and 

 cattle. Livingston. 



North Bloomfield, N. Y, 1848. 



Benkfit of Salt in the Food of Shee?.— From som« 

 experiments made at the Agricultural Institute, at St. Gei- 

 main, in France, it appears that the sheep which gained in 

 weight .3i lbs. a month, increased double that amount in 

 the same length of lime, when about one tenth of anoune« 

 of salt was added to the food of each per day. 



What Constitutes Good Farming. — About 2,000 yeare 

 ago, when the old Roman, Columella, was asked what con- 

 stituted good farming, he answered, " first, good plowing." 

 On again being asked what came next, he replied, " good 

 plowing ;" thus strongly impressing the occasion for good 

 tillage over every other consideration. 



