40 



rily give better results than hill culture, and when corn is grown in 

 large fields, a riding or sulky cultivator working in two rows at a time 

 is the most desirable form of implement. Little or no hand hoeing 

 should be required. 



Harvesting the Crop. 



If one grows corn as a field crop for husking only, and upon the scale 

 usual on New England farms, it may be doubted whether it will pay 

 to purchase a corn harvester; but where ensilage as well as field corn 

 is grown, a self-binding harvester, which is a necessity in handling 

 ensilage corn, may be used with advantage in harvesting the field 

 crop ; for the bundles as bound and left upon the ground by the har- 

 vester can be readily set up into shocks, which stand more securely 

 than shocks of unbound corn. Corn so put up can be husked without 

 unbinding, so that the stover can be conveniently handled in bundles. 

 In cases where a machine is not available, a corn knife and horse for 

 shocking furnish the needed equipment. A rope with a hook in one 

 end for drawing the tops of the shocks firmly together is of great 

 assistance in so setting them up that they will stand securely through 

 the autumn storms. Binder twine furnishes satisfactory material for 

 binding the tops of the shocks. 



In some parts of the State it is still the practice to cut the stalks 

 just above the ears as soon as the latter are beginning to glaze. 

 Under this system, the food value of the part of the stalks cut is likely 

 to be greater than if the whole plant be allowed to stand until the corn 

 is ready to shock, as in the more modern method. If the practice of 

 top stalking be followed, however, the food value of the part of the 

 stalk below the ears is seriously reduced, as the result of long exposure 

 to the autumn storms. The total amount of labor, moreover, is greater 

 in this system than in the system of cutting and shocking, and there 

 can be no doubt that the latter system should usually be followed. 

 Under this system, flint varieties should be cut as soon as they are 

 fully glazed. Dent varieties should be cut when the dent is well 

 defined in the ends of the kernels. Considerable ingenuity has been 

 exercised in the effort to produce a satisfactory husking machine. A 

 number of machines are manufactured which will do the work; but 

 the general consensus of opinion among those who have tried machines 

 for husking is that the economical advantage is at best doubtful, and 

 the greater part of the enormous corn crops of this country is still 

 annually husked by hand. Corn stover in some seasons and with 

 some varieties is sufficiently well cured to keep satisfactorily if stored 

 in mows under cover; but in the writer's judgment it will usually 

 keep more satisfactorily in stacks of moderate size in the open air. 

 It is sometimes hauled to the barn late in the fall or early winter, and 

 run through an ensilage cutter or a shredding machine and then packed 

 in a mow, or, if available, in a silo. Such cut or shredded stover will 

 not keep satisfactorily in a silo unless it is considerably moistened as 

 it goes in, in order to facilitate better packing; and unless it is espe- 

 cially well cured, it is hardly likely to keep well in large bulk in the 

 mow. It seems to the writer preferable under most circumstances to 

 take the stover from the stacks in relatively small amounts, cutting 

 or shredding at one time only a sufficient quantity to last a week or 

 two. This plan, of course, cannot be conveniently followed unless 

 the farmer owns his own machine and power. Shredded stover, if 

 satisfactorily kept, is much more palatable than that which is simply 

 cut. It will be consumed with far less waste than stover which is fed 

 without special preparation. 



