174 Feeds and Feeding. 



require can be supplied them uuhusked, iu vMch form there is 

 no labor or expense for husking and grinding. The ears of thickly- 

 grown fodder com are small, palatable and easily masticated. 

 When corn fodder is fed to cattle they should be allowed ample 

 time to work it over before cleaning out the mangers or feed racks. 

 The Indian corn plant grown for hay, and carrying more or less 

 grain, according to requirements, possesses a value not fully appre- 

 ciated by stockmen generally. We have become so accustomed ^ 

 to growing this grass for the grain it yields and using the rough- 

 age as a sort of straw, to be eaten or wasted as accident determines, 

 that we have almost wholly overlooked its hay-making qualities. 

 (652) 



251. Corn stover. — The forage which remains after removing 

 the ear has a higher feeding value than is usually ascribed to it. 

 For idle horses and growing colts corn stover may be used in 

 winter with advantage. This forage is now commonly fed to 

 dairy cows, and experience attests its value. By running stover 

 through the shredder or feed cutter the proportion readily eaten 

 by cattle may be materially increased. (653) 



252. " Pulling " fodder. — At the South the custom prevails of 

 stripping the leaves from the corn stalk while still green and cur- 

 ing them into a nutritious form of hay. Stubbs, of the Louisiana 

 Station,! found that "puUiag" fodder from the stalks of corn 

 caused a shrinkage in the yield of grain of from fifteen to twenty 

 per cent. Bedding, at the Georgia Station, ^ after investigating the 

 subject, writes: "The strongest argument against the practice 

 is the meager results of fodder compared with the amoimt of labor 

 involved. The same labor employed in mowing grass or any good 

 forage crop, even without the use of improved harvesting ma- 

 chinery, would yield vastly greater results." Stock -growing at 

 the South will never attain the dignity the situation merits until 

 the custom of " pulling ' ' corn leaves is abandoned and the planters 

 address themselves to intelligent modern methods <rf cultivating 

 and harvesting the many valuable forage plants which can be 

 grown in that region. 



1 Bui. 22; see also Bui. 104, N. C. Sta. 

 « Bui. 10. 



