188 INDIAN-CORN FODDER. 



another : " I have found no better hay for farm stock 

 than good clover, cut in season. For inilch cows it is 

 much better than Timothy. The rowen crop is better 

 than any other for calves." 



INDIAN CORN makes an exceedingly valuable fodder, 

 both as a means of carrying a herd of milch cows 

 through our severe droughts of summer, and as an 

 article for soiling cows kept in the stall. No dairy 

 farmer will neglect to sow an extent in proportion to 

 the number of cows he keeps. The most common 

 practice is to sow in drills from two and a half to three 

 feet apart, on land well tilled and thoroughly manured, 

 making the drills from six to ten inches wide with the 

 plough, manuring in the furrow, dropping the corn about 

 two inches apart, and covering with the hoe. In this 

 mode of culture the cultivator may be used between 

 the rows when the corn is from six to twelve inches 

 high, and unless the ground is very weedy no other 

 after culture is generally needed. The first sowing 

 usually takes place about the 20th of May, and this is 

 succeeded by other sowings at intervals of a week or 

 ten days, till July, in order to have a succession of 

 green fodder. But, if it is designed to cut it up to cure 

 for winter use, an early sowing is generally preferred, 

 in order to be able to cure it in warm weather, in 

 August or early in September. Sown in this way, 

 about three or four bushels of corn are required for an 

 acre, since, if sown thickly, the fodder is better, the 

 stalks smaller, and the waste less. 



The chief difficulty in curing corn cultivated for this 

 purpose, and after the methods spoken of, arises mainly 

 from the fact that it comes at a season when the 

 weather is often colder, the days shorter, and the dews 

 heavier, than when the curing of hay takes place. Nor 

 is the curing of corn cut up green so easy and simple 



