162 Feeds and Feeding. 



Southern corn with its large stalks will have less of the total nutri- 

 ents in the ear and more in the stalks. 



The ^.ast column in the table, which shows that one-third of the 

 digestible nutrients of the corn crop is in the stover or corn straw, 

 is most significant and should be carefully considered by the corn 

 grower. AVhile literally correct, the figures do not mean that in 

 all cases one-third of the value of the corn crop for feeding pur- 

 poses is in the coarse parts. Much more energy is required to 

 digest a given weight of stover than the same weight of ears and 

 consequently less net energy remains in the case of the stover after 

 both have been passed thru the digestive tract. For fattening ani- 

 mals, those giving milk, and for those at hard work the stover has 

 a smaller value than here given. For animals at light work, those 

 fattening slowly or giving only a small quantity of milk, and for 

 maintaining animals in winter when much heat for warming the 

 body is required, the stover then approximates the value here ex- 

 pressed. (70, 96, 403) 



212. Pulling fodder. — At the South the tops of the ripening corn 

 stalks are quite commonly cut off just above the ears, leaving the 

 tall butts, each with an unhusked ear at its top. Next, the leaves 

 are stripped from the butts, and these together with the severed 

 tops are cured into a nutritious, palatable fodder, which is exten- 

 sively employed for feeding horses and other stock. Ladd's study 

 of the ripening corn plant shows the folly of this practice. During 

 the last stages of its life the corn plant is busiest in gathering crude 

 materials from air and soil and elaborating them into nutritious 

 food. Removing the top and leaves, at once stops all this work of 

 food making. Stubbs of the Louisiana Station^ found that pulling 

 fodder caused a shrinkage of from 15 to 20 per ct. in the yield of 

 grain. 



213. Losses in field curing. — Losses of nutrients in corn fodder 

 after it has been gathered into shocks (stooks) are known to occur 

 thru weathering, but there are also large losses which are unex- 

 plained. During 4 years' study at the Wisconsin Station, WolP de- 

 termined the dry matter and crude protein in a crop of corn at the 

 time of cutting and again after the shocks had been exposed to the 

 weather for several months. It was found that under Wisconsin 

 conditions well-made shocks of corn which stand in the field for a 

 few montlis lose about 24 per ct. of their dry matter, the crude pro- 



' Bui. 22 (old series) ; also Bui. 104, North Carolina Sta. 

 ' A Book on Silage. 



