210 THE BOOK OF CORN 



is in the more complete utilization of the corn stover, 

 It is estimated that between eighty and ninety million 

 tons of stover are produced on the eighty million acres 

 or more planted to corn in the United States each year. 

 The magnitude of this annual crop of roughness will 

 be more fully appreciated when we consider that the 

 annual hay crop of the United States is between sixty 



J 2 3 



Fig 54— Effects of Root Pruning 



No i, not pruned ; 2, pruned four inches deep; 3, pruned six inches deep 

 See Chapter VI 11 



and seventy million tons, and is estimated to have a 

 money value on the farm of something like five hun- 

 dred millions of dollars. 



Stover is carefully harvested and fed in the more 

 densely populated states of the east. Tn the great corn 

 belt of the middle west, where more than half the corn 



