HARVESTING. Ill 



Small stacks are preferable to large ones — 

 from 60 to 100 shocks to each one. Such a size 

 can be handled to better advantage than a large 

 one, whether the fodder is fed in field or 

 stable. 



Pulled fodder is especially prepared in the 

 South. This operation is well described by 

 "H." in the Country Gentleman of Feb. 5, 1885: 



"There are usually two stalks in a hill of corn; the blades 

 are gathered as high as the operator can reach, from both 

 stalks, and thrust between them to remain until dry enough 

 to bind into bundles, which are as large as the blades will 

 reach around and tie. This tying is done very late in the 

 evening after the dew begins to fall, when the corn blades, 

 thoroughly dry, are just moist enough not to crumble. The 

 fodder has then to be packed [carried] by hand, either to the 

 ends of the rows, where it can be hauled to the barn, or if 

 the rows are very long, to some central point to be stacked, 

 not in loose leaves, but in bundles." 



This method of securing fodder is becoming 

 less and less practiced in the South. The cost 

 of fodder so secured is too great and valuable 

 food material is lost in the stalks left in the 

 field. As a practical business matter the 

 Southern farmer should cut his com within- six 

 inches of the ground and cure it in the shock, 

 as is done elsewhere. The practice of topping 

 corn is equally as undesirable as pulling. 



Husking. — In the eastern United States 

 where the weather is somewhat uncertain in 

 the fall, and snow comes early, the corn is usu- 

 ally husked as soon as dry enough. The ears 



