ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 239 



left in the field very long loses 50 per cent of its protein for feeding 

 As a matter of convenience I have found in my experience that you 

 want to stack your corn fodder when the corn is in it and stack it out- 

 doors. You don't want to stack it in the barn; if it is dirty, let it 

 stand dirty. The rats and mice and manure and these other odors that 

 pass through the corn fodder, make it so the cattle will not eat it so well; 

 so stack it out doors. Fodder that is fed early in the year does good. 

 You should stack fodder outdoors that will carry you through the bad 

 day? of the spring. There is no difficulty on earth in stacking corn fod- 

 der outdoors; no trouble whatever. The first of March and April have 

 enough corn fodder that I can feed during this season of the year. There 

 is a whole lot of waste in corn fodder, but the waste is worth more per 

 ton than the whole fodder cost you. Good for bedding, and when scat- 

 tered in your barns it tones up the bedding, easily absorbs liquid man- 

 ure and your barns will be as dry in March and April as if you had a ce- 

 ment floor, and the cattle will not go covered with the manure. 



Mr. Mason: — Do you like shredded fodder as well as cut fodder? 



A: — The early part of the year, about two months in the spring, 

 like shredded fodder, never tried cutting. I thing corn fodder is the 

 coming feed of the State of Illinois, and bound to take the place of hay. 



A Member: — Corn probably cut for early feeding can be fed cheap- 

 er from the shock than anywhere else in the world, but many days you 

 all know it is stormy in the morning and frozen down. Never have tried 

 cutting, threshing and shreddin g. The ordinary threshing machine 

 will do it faster and cheaper than anything else. I would rather have it 

 than the cut corn. We have threshed 70 acres of heavy fodder in three 

 days time easily, while a shredder that cuts in our neighborhood takes a 

 third longer. 



Mr. Mason: — We stack corn so we can get it out in January. 



Mr. Allen: — In speaking of stacking fodder, you give the idea that 

 it is husked? 



A: — Corn all in it. 



By the President: — The Grout bili is now before the Senate committee 



