The Grasses Including Indian Corn. 163 



tein content sufit'ering to the same extent. Cooke has shown that in 

 the dry climate of Colorado^ heavy losses likewise occur in shock 

 corn. At the South the corn forage, maturing early, melts away to 

 almost nothing in a comparatively short time. The substances lost 

 thru such wasting are crude protein, sugar, starch, etc. — the most 

 valuable portions of the plant. Nor is it possible to entirely prevent 

 these losses by placing the cured fodder under cover or in stacks, 

 for Woll found losses even under such conditions. Losses of this 

 nature are probably due to fermentations which slowly but steadily 

 waste the substance of the forage. Sanborn- writes: "Many trials 

 with fodder . . . make it certain that 15 per ct. is the minimum 

 loss to be expected with dry storage, while the loss may rise to 20 

 per ct. or even more in ordinary practice." (348) 



214. Fodder corn for soilage. — On farms lacking summer silage, 

 feeding corn forage in the green stage should become general, for the 

 reason that during the late summer and early fall, the pastures are 

 often scant, and animals forced to subsist upon them suifer from 

 lack of sufficient food and cannot do their best. An acre of ripen- 

 ing corn fed in early fall to steers or dairy cow^s which are other- 

 wise on poor feed may so advance their condition as to return double 

 the value it would yield were it held over until wdnter and fed at 

 a time W'hen there is often a plethora of the same material. 



215. Shocking (stocking) com. — The loss from weathering which 

 shock corn suffers can be lessened by making large shocks. In corn 

 shocks the stalks stand almost vertical, and as the leaves wilt there 

 is ample room for the upward passage of air currents, which rapidly 

 dry the interior and check molds and fermentations. When shock 

 corn is pronounced dry by the farmer, it still carries more water 

 and consequently less dry matter than hay, a fact which should not 

 be overlooked when feeding this forage. 



216. Shock corn. — ]\Iumford of the Illinois Station,^ when feeding 

 steers clover hay, found shock corn supplemented with ear corn and 

 oil meal superior to shelled corn and oil meal. (523) This result, 

 substantiated by common experience, shows that corn need not be 

 husked for the best results in steer feeding, and in somewhat less 

 measure this is true with the dairy cow. An ear of corn wrapped 

 in its husk possesses aroma and palatability which is in part lost 

 after it has been exposed to the air for a time. Whoever has 

 watched a cow eagerly searching a bundle of stover for a possible 

 ear or nubbin which the would-be thrifty farmer had overlooked, 



1 Colo. Expt. !Sta., Bui. 30. "Cyc. Am. Agr., Vol. li, p. 569. 'Bui. 103. 



