MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 753 



INDIAN CORN— THE VALUE OF THE CROP, AND 

 THE BEST MODE OF CULTIVATING IT. 



BY J. R. LAWTON. 



No grain raised by the farmer, especially in the New Eng- 

 land States, gives so large a return for labor bestowed, as corn. 



This grain has properties for fattening cattle, swine, and 

 sheep, as well as fowls, which no other grain possesses. It la 

 fitted, when properly used, to supply the principal wants of 

 the domestic animals. 



There is no grain possessing so large a per centage of oil, 

 which is readily converted into animal oil, or fat. This is only 

 done by a slight change of composition. This fact is clearly 

 illustrated by the distillers of the different kinds of grain. The 

 oil of corn, or any grain, cannot be converted into whiskey; it 

 rises during fermentation, and separates. Some distinguished 

 men have found by experiment that from one hundred bushels 

 of flint or northern corn, fourteen to sixteen gallons of oil were 

 actually taken. No other grain has ever produced a like per 

 centage of oil. 



It is an admitted fact, by all who have had experience in 

 the fattening of cattle and swine on still slop, that they fatten 

 much faster while fed on the slop made of corn, than they do 

 on that made from any other grain. And if for cattle and 

 swine, I think it may apply to all animals intended for 

 slaughter. 



Corn possesses a superior quality over other grain, from the 

 fact of its being, with natural ease, converted into bone, and 

 the important ligaments which support the physical structure 

 of the animal. While being properly fed on this grain, the oil 

 changes easily into fat, or animal oil, and the flinty portions of 

 the grain are forming bone and muscle, so that each of the two 

 important wants of the animal is with the greatest exactness 

 supplied ; perfectly answering the purpose for which it was de- 

 signed. 



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