318 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Mr. John G. Bergen and Dr. Trimble both disputed this point, as to the 

 value of but-stalks, considering them of very little account, except so far 

 as some coarse feed is necessary to distend the stomach of animals. 



Mr. Wm. J. Townsend, said his custom was to feed the top 

 stalks to milch cows, and the buts to other stock, which were thus 

 kept in good condition. He grows corn on purpose to produce this kind of 

 feed. 



Mr. R. A. Van Winkle writes from Arrington, Atchison county, Kansas, 

 that in his opinion " one of the causes of mad itch in cattle is feeding them 

 on the buts of cornstalks — that the hard, woody fiber of the stalks clogs 

 and fills up the manifolds, and produces the disease known as mad itch. 

 Sorgo stalks are equally bad, and both corn and sorgo, whether fed green 

 or dry, are injurious, and rather the most so when eaten green. Some 

 fanners cut up corn when nearly ripe, and feed it to their hogs. It is often 

 done in the west, and is very good for the hogs, but if you let cattle get 

 what they leave they frequently eat it after the hog has sucked all the 

 nutritious substance from it. This substitute will produce mad itch in 

 cattle sooner than anything else. 



Mr. Wm. J. Townsend insisted that he had had many years' experience in 

 feeding cornstalks, and had never known them to produce disease. His 

 experience has been the same in feeding sorgo. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter said that he had known bad results produced upon 

 cows fed with cornstalks just before calving; he had lost one, as he be- 

 lieved, from that cause. The effect seems t(j be an inability of the cow to 

 get rid of the afterbirth. 



Mr. W. J. Townsend said cows in that condition should never be kept 

 upon dry feed of any kind. He had lost them in similar circumstances 

 when fed upon hay. 



Mr. Wm. C. Hastings. — Experience as regards cornstalks induces him to 

 c^mc to the same conclusion as Mr. Townsend. He thinks they may be 

 heating and injurious to cows near the time of parturition. But that may 

 be remedied by bran mashes. As to the leaf or stalk being more nutritious, 

 he thinks the leaf is, from the fact that when a stalk is thrown to an ani- 

 mal it will always eat the leaves first, should that not satisfy the appetite 

 it will then eat the stalk, as it is necessary for any ruminating animal to 

 take into its first stomach a certain quantity of woody fiber to enable it to 

 ruminate. He has seen cows fed on cut corn stalks, and some feed better 

 beef than cattle he saw driven to be slaughtered. 



Mr. Bergen said : 1 have no faith that the buts of corn stalks are valua- 

 ble for food. I know that the tops and the leaves are. Formerly it was 

 the practice on Long Island to top the corn after it began to ripen. These 

 stalks, well cured, were the most valuable feed we could obtain for cattle or 

 horses. Both kept fat upon them, rejecting only a small part of the 

 hardest portion. 



Hedges. 



Mr. W. J. Townsend gave his experience with hedges, and earnestly advo- 

 cated the white English hawthorn. He has a hedge of this kind upon his 

 form near Skaneateles, which is over forty years old, and is a perfect fence 



