CARRYING CATTLE THROUGH THE WINTER 233 



of ensilage that has been chaffed before putting it into 

 the silo can best be fed in feed boxes or in mangers in 

 front of stanchions. 



The method of husking corn from the stalk and 

 leaving the stalks in the field, and storing the corn in 

 cribs, is practiced over wide areas of this country, more 

 especially in what is known as the corn belt. Cattle 

 being wintered are allowed to graze amid these prac- 

 tically at will. This method of harvesting corn orig- 

 inated in the excess of stover grown over the needs of 

 the animals kept on the farm and also in the scarcity 

 and high wages of help. The practice has become so 

 thoroughly established in certain areas that many years 

 must elapse before it will be entirely discarded. Not- 

 withstanding the reasons given above for the adoption 

 of the practice, to its continuance there are the follow- 

 ing objections: (i) It is wasteful of fodder, which, if 

 harvested at the right season, would furnish excellent 

 food. Only a small proportion of the stalk is eaten and 

 not until it has lost much of its food value. (2) While 

 gleaning amid the stalks, the animals are, in some in- 

 stances, unduly exposed to inclement weather, which 

 is so far adverse to well doing. (3) Such grazing is fre- 

 quently dangerous to live stock. The hazard is present 

 that they will succumb to what is known as " corn stalk " 

 disease (see page 444), the cause or causes of which 

 are but imperfectly understood. In many cases it acts 

 fatally and quickly, and it would seem correct to say 

 that under no other conditions does it arise, which would 

 seem to indicate that it is produced by some influence 

 that is only present in corn stalks when managed thus. 

 (4) In wet weather some soils are much injured me- 

 chanically by such grazing. 



Fodders that deteriorate with age. — The feeding 

 value of some foods, as mangels, for instance, improves 

 for a time after they have been harvested. But the in- 

 stances of such improvement are rare. When they do 



