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INDIAN CORN (Zea Mays.) (For Forage). 



Taking it in all its manifold uses there is no other product of agri- 

 culture grown in America so important to man and to domestic ani- 

 mals as Indian corn. The grain is more extensively used in the United 

 States than all other grains combined. The average annual crop does 

 not fall short of two thousand million bushels. The oat crop which 

 comes second rarely surpasses 800,000,000 bushels. The corn crop has 

 always been a leading one with the farmers of Tennessee from pioneer 

 days to the present. In fact, in 1840, Tennessee grew more Indian corn 

 than any other state in the Union. 



It is not the purpose of this bulletin, however, to try to teach Ten- 

 nessee farmers how to raise corn or to go into an elaborate description 

 of the great number of varieties produced in the United States. The 

 chief object of this paper is to direct their attention to the value of Indian 

 corn in the making of hay and forage. The "saving of fodder" was for 

 nearly a century considered one of the indispensable tasks of the farmers 

 of Tennessee, but no one in early times ever thought of sowing Indian 

 corn and mowing it to supply the place of fodder. The dairymen of the 

 north have, for many years, been using corn so sown as a soiling crop for 

 their cows during the dry months of July and August after the first pas- 

 tures have dried up and before the fall pastures have become green with 

 the latter rains. A vast amount of forage in the form of fodder tops and 

 stalks is saved in every part of the United States. Even in Europe corn 

 forage is growing to be very popular, and the grain is now used by the 

 inhabitants of many foreign states who knew nothing of it thirty years 

 ago. 



Mr. Mechi. who for a long time enjoyed the distinction of being one 

 of the best farmers in England, placed a very high estimate upon corn 

 fodder not only in' the feeding of sheep and cattle, but for the production 

 of milk and butter. He estimated that one ton of such fodder is equal 

 to forty bushels of grain. 



There is a class of small farmers and tenants in the State of Tennes- 

 see who do not own the land which they cultivate. These farmers must 

 raise some kind of hay, or as they call it "roughness" with which to feed 

 their work stock. This can be easily done by sowing, the first of May 

 upon well prepared land, a few acres in corn at the rate of a bushel and a 

 half to the acre. It should be covered with a harrow. The corn fodder 

 will mature in about 90 days, that is to say, it will arrive at that stage 

 when it should be cut, which will be about the time the tassels and silks 

 are well developed. Cut at this stage, it will make from 40 to 50 tons 

 of green forage on an acre of fertile land and from three to four tons of 

 dry forage. It makes also an excellent soiling crop for milch cows. 



There is some difficulty in curing corn-fodder properly, as it is ex- 

 tremely succulent. It must be cut in good weather and spread evenly on 

 the land so as to receive as much sun as possible. It may then be put up 

 in shocks like hay, after it has been sufficiently dry to escape the danger 

 of fermentation. It may be managed very much in the same manner as 

 sorghum. Corn fodder, green, is also an excellent material for ensilage, 

 especially when grown with cowpeas, oats and soy beans. 



