348 



THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



form the means of calculating the fodder yield of the crop. The 

 custom is one that requires a great amount of time for the return 

 received. Most of this is saved in the process of ensilage making. 

 The use of the corn harvester is of value in cutting the ripe corn 

 just as much as in gathering for the silo, and this reduces the amount 

 of travel over the same ground to a large degree and much of that 

 which is still necessary is clone by draught animals rather than by 

 laborers on foot. It is thought by some that the quality of the corn 

 from topped fields is not so good as that from adjacent fields in 



Fig. 14— Map of Maryland showing the relative Annual Production of Hay. 



which the entire stalk was cut at the proper time, both ripening in 

 the field in the manner customary in the respective cases. The dif- 

 ferences were found through careful analyses, and while hardly 

 enough to influence ordinary feeding uses, might be of considerable 

 influence in the seed quality of the corn for the next crop. 



The several methods of utilizing the corn crop are somewhat char- 

 acteristic of the several Zones of the State; the top-and-blade gath- 

 ering being largely prevalent in the Coastal, while the use of the 

 siloes is most common in the Midland Zone. The use of the stover 

 or whole fodder, is common in the upper part of the Coastal, and in 

 both Midland and Mountain Zones, the areas overlapping in this 

 feature more than in the other two, but the limits are not sharply 

 drawn for either. 



