2l6 



THE BOOK OF CORN 



DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS IN ONE TON OP STOVER AND ONE 

 TON OF TIMOTHY* 



It is safe to discount these figures for the coarse, 

 rank-growing stover of the corn belt, for experience 

 teaches that this material is not so palatable and prob- 

 ably not so digestible as the smaller and finer stover 

 produced in the north and east. 



Coarse Stover Valuable — At the same time, the 

 results of all experiments and of experience abundantly 

 prove that even this coarse stover has a feeding value 

 that will fully justify the labor, pains and expense 

 of harvesting and feeding it. The waste of this food 

 that occurs in many sections from merely topping the 

 stalk, leaving the blades below the ear and the husks 

 to waste, is not from any point of view justifiable or 

 economical, much less the more common practice in 

 the corn belt of allowing most of the corn to stand in 

 the field until harvested, and allowing all of the stover 

 to waste except the little that the stock may' eat in 

 gleaning the stalk fields late in the season. 



The Feeding Value of Corn Stover — The results 

 of experiments by the Missouri experiment station 

 extending over six years, with yearling and two-year- 

 old steers, both with and without grain, will enable us 

 to form a fair estimate of the feeding value of this 

 material as compared with timothy hay, which is ac- 

 cepted as the commercial standard, at least, of all 

 rough fodders. In all of these trials, large coarse 



•stover computed on basis of twenty per cent moisture. 



