1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



425 



For the New England Farmer. 

 RETROSPECTIVE NOTES. 



Corn Cobs and Cob Meal. — Such is the cap- 

 tion of an article in the July number of the Far- 

 mer, well deserving the attention and candid con- 

 sideration of all farmers, and of those more es- 

 pecially who still continue to practice a mode of 

 feeding, which was, a few years ago, much more 

 common than it is now. 1 refer to the practice 

 of grinding corn and cobs together, and feeding 

 the meal ; and it is because this practice is neith- 

 er safe nor economical, but, on the contrary^ often 

 injurious, and always dangerous as well as waste- 

 ful, that, as it seems to us, this article by Mr. 

 Bassett, (see N. E. Farmer, July, page 301,) is 

 well deserving of attentive and unprejudiced con- 

 sideration. It deserves consideration, because it 

 contains several sensible remarks upon a practice 

 which has a bearing both upon the pecuniary in- 

 terests of farmers and upon the comfort and 

 health of their stock ; and it deserves unpreju- 

 diced consideration, because, whether they are 

 sensible of the fact or not, there are a good many 

 who make it abundantly manifest either by tongue 

 or pen, that they have very strong prejudices in 

 favor of the practice which the writer of the arti- 

 cle under notice has discontinued for very good 

 and sufficient reasons. 



Hoping that all concerned will give to the ex- 

 cellent article of Mr. Bassett, {N. E. Farmer, 

 May 25th, and July number, page 301,) such con- 

 sideration or re-consideration as ^e have named, 

 and that many, like Mr. B., may be converted 

 from the error of their way of feeding, we feel as 

 if we might do some little service, especially in 

 the case of such as may be hard to be convinced, 

 by submitting a few facts and considerations in 

 addition to those of Mr. B., or in confirmation of 

 the same. 



The first noteworthy thing about the article un- 

 der notice is, that the writer, Mr. B., does not be- 

 long tp that class of farmers who, having once 

 adopted some particular mode of practice, stick 

 to it, right or wrong. Mr. B. says, "It used to 

 be our custom to feed a considerable portion of 

 our corn in the form of cob meal." This custom, 

 however, he at lergth gave up ; and among the 

 reasons for this change Mr. B. names the follow- 

 ing : 



1. It is too expensive. The force of this rea- 

 son would have been more manifest, if Mr. B. 

 had stated what seems to be, by the general ac- 

 knowledgment of those who have chemically an- 

 alyzed cobs, the small amount of nutritive matter 

 contained in them. Cobs, according to the gen- 

 eral estimate, contain no more nutritive matter 

 than wheat straw ; and certainly, if all millers 

 charged at the same rate for grinding corn and 

 cobs together as that at which the "entirely hon- 

 est" miller employed by Mr. B. charged him, it 

 would, indeed, be too expensive to grind the cob 

 with the corn. "The last time," says Mr. Bas- 

 sett, "that I had corn ground in the ear, I meas- 

 ured six bushels in my half bushel, which would 

 not have yielded over three bushels of shelled 

 corn, and carried it to a mill whose owner has the 

 credit of being entirely honest. This was then 

 passed through the 'cracker,' and according to his 

 measure made seven bushels, for grinding which, 

 I was charged forty-two cents, or twenty-four I 



cents for grinding the cobs." Truly may Mr. B. 

 say that grinding cobs at this rate is too expen- 

 sive, inasmuch as it requires no chemical analysis, 

 but only a little common sense, to become con- 

 vinced, that a bushel of cobs cannot be made, by 

 mere grinding, six cents better than when un- 

 ground ; and it must seem very doubtful that a 

 bushel of them is worth six cents in any form 

 whatever. 



At this rate of charging for grinding, the cost 

 for grinding a ton would be about six dollars. 

 Of this any one may satisfy himself by a little cal- 

 culation. A bushel of cobs will weigh, on an 

 average, about twenty pounds (20 lb«.,) and a 

 hundred such bushels will make a ton, and at the 

 rate of six cents a bushel, a ton will cost exactly 

 six dollars. What unprejudiced, what judicious 

 and well informed man would give six dollars for 

 grinding a ton of cobs ? There are, indeed, sev- 

 eral other articles of fodder, of which six dollars' 

 worth would go much farther than a ton of cob 

 meal. And even if cobs could be ground at three 

 cents per bushel, or three dollars per ton, we 

 would prefer to have three dollars' worth of some- 

 t ling else, and let the stock have access to the 

 cobs in the crude state, in which form they will 

 eat a few occasionally, and quite probably as many 

 as will do them any good. 



2. The second reason alleged by Mr. B,, for 

 giving up the practice of grinding corn with the 

 cob is, that, in some cases, it produces constipa- 

 tion. He might have found in the records of the 

 experience of others, if not in his own, instances 

 of far more serious consequences than simple con- 

 stipation, for there have been scores, if not hun- 

 dreds of cases recorded, in which death was clear- 

 ly attributable to the use of cob meal. And what 

 wonder ! Let any one examine a hard, fully ma- • 

 tured cob, and he will find flinty, hard, sharp, 

 glossy scales between the kernels, and adhering 

 to the cob, which no common grinding can re- 

 duce to powder, or deprive of their sharp edge. 

 These being, many of them at least, as hard and 

 as sharp-edged as a knife, cannot go through the 

 bowels of any animal without risk of producing 

 wounds in the tender lining membrane, or irrita- 

 tion, or inflammation, either fatal or severe. And 

 such results have actually taken place. Mr. S. 

 E. Todd, author of "The Young Farmer's Manu- 

 al," mentions cases in which streaks of blood 

 were voided, and several instances of other inju- 

 rious and even fatal effects — all clearly proved to 

 be results of these hard, flinty, sharp-edged scales. 



Did time and space permit, we might submit 

 still a few other considerations as a supplement 

 to Mr. B.'s article, and in furtherance of his be- 

 nevolent purpose. Should occasion seem to re- 

 quire it, the subject will be resumed. 



More Anon. 



How to Cut Glass with a Piece of Iron. — 

 Draw with a pencil on paper any pattern to which 

 you wish the glass conform ; place the pattern 

 under the glass holding both togebter with the 

 left hand, (for the glass must not rest on any 

 plain surface,) then take a spike or piece of iron, 

 heated, and pass it slowly forward and the edge 

 will immediately crack ; continue moving the iron 

 slowly over the glass, tracing the pattern, and the 

 clink in the glass will follow at the distance of 



