CROPS FOR DAIRY FARMS. 61 



stage, and as the fodder is cured these may be dried, 

 if the proper precautions are taken in the curing. The 

 author has taken over 10,000 ears of sweet corn fit for 

 market per acre from a crop of Evergreen sweet, and this 

 product, gathered and sold from farms near large cities, 

 is exceedingly valuable, frequently selling for $1.50 per 

 100 ears, and if late in the season, and of good size, for 

 nearly or quite twice as much. Thus this crop is a 

 very useful one for dairymen who are near a market 

 for this kind of truck. 



The crop is cultivated precisely as field corn is. At 

 the proper time, which is when the ears are in the 

 milk, the corn is cut close to the ground in the usual 

 manner and left for two or three days to dry. It is then 

 bound in small sheaves of about twenty stalks in each, 

 with bands of rye straw, then set up in small shocks 

 and bound securely at the top, the bottom being spread 

 to admit the air. It is thus left until the stalks are 

 quite dry and the ears shrunken, when it is put up in 

 small stacks of about 1,000 bundles or less, built around 

 a frame made like three ladders meeting at the top and 

 spreading at the bottom, by which air is admitted into 

 the center of the stack and mildew is prevented. When 

 fed green the stalks are cut up in a fodder cutter with 

 the ears, and make a most valuable food for the cows. 

 They are very productive of milk of good quality. Sweet 

 corn ears in the ccoking stage make excellent food for 

 butter-making cows, and the butter is of fine flavor and 

 quality. 



In growing the second crop the land is plowed as fast 

 as the first one is removed, the swivel plow being the 

 most convenient implement, and is harrowed and planted 

 as soon as a space wide enough to start on is ready. The 

 Acme harrow prepares the plowed ground very quickly 

 and perfectly, and the Albany corn planter drops and 

 covers the seed, and marks the rows, at one operation. 



