174. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 113. 
A prominent Tennessee lawyer writes: "I 
ant a subscriber and reader of Hie American 
Agriculturist aud Hearth and Home, and I have 
been much pleased with your 'Walks and 
Talks on Hie Farm,' and I take the liberty of 
addressing you and making your acquaintance, 
and calling on you for some information in re- 
gard to the sowing, reaping, and curing of corn 
fodder. I am a native Tenncsseean. I was a 
member of the Board of Visitors at. "West Point, 
N. Y., last June by appointment of the Presi- 
dent, and after leaving there I spent some time 
North. I saw corn sowed in the State of New 
Jersey broadcast, and was told that it yielded 
more feed than any other kind of hay. Will 
you answer me, either by letter or in your 
Walks and Talks? I wish to know particularly 
how much corn to sow broadcast per acre, how 
to prepare the ground for sowing, when to cut, 
and how to cure, etc. ? " 
I am always glad to hear from any one inter- 
ested in farming, and am not disinclined to give 
mj T views on an)' agricultural subject. But in 
this case I fear my correspondent has applied 
to the wrong man. If he had written to Hora- 
tio Seymour, or H. S. Collins, or Col. Waring, 
lie would have got a more enthusiastic account 
of the virtues of corn fodder. If, on the other 
hand, lie had written to Harris Lewis, the well- 
known Herkimer County dairyman, he would 
probably have been told that corn fodder was 
the poorest stuff that could be grown — that 
he had found from actual trial that cows fall 
off in their milk when fed green-corn fodder. 
My own opinion is that corn fodder is a capi- 
tal crop to raise where you can not grow any- 
thing better. On my farm it proves a very 
valuable crop to feed green to milch-cows the 
latter part of .Tidy, August, and September. 
I do not say it is as nutritious as good grass; 
but when the pastures are dry aud bare it is a 
very pleasant thing to see the cows when they 
are brought up from the field at night feeding 
from full racks of corn fodder in the yard. 
They seem to like it. It seems to do them 
good ; and no one has yet shown that this ex- 
tra feed of green-corn fodder makes the cows 
give less milk. I do not make the cows eat the 
green-corn. They have just as much grass as 
they cf n find in the field. If they could find all 
the good grass they wanted I presume they 
would not eat very much corn. 
The real question is, not whether corn is as 
nutritious as grass, but whether when your pas- 
tures are scanty corn can not be used to advan- 
tage as a substitute? Even Harris Lewis will 
admit, I think, that it can be soused with profit. 
I think all our dairymen are agreed on this. 
It lias been objected to green corn that H 
contains too much water. If so, it, is an easy 
matter to remove a portion of it by cutting the 
corn and letting it wilt a little before feeding. 
A far more serious objection to it. is the large 
amount of crude woody fiber which it contains. 
Let us look into this matter, for it is a point, of 
great, practical importance. 
The following table shows the composition 
per cent of green-corn fodder cut the early part, 
of August, as compared with field beets or 
mangel-wurzel : 
Green-corn fodder.. 
Field beets 
88.8,16.7 
Olll.l 
i Mil 
„ SIS'! 
i.i 
0.9! 
1.1 10.9 
1.1 9.1 
It will be seen that, green-corn contains less 
water, or, in other words, more dry matter than 
beets or mangel-wurzel. A ton of green-corn 
contains 356 lbs. of dry matter, while a ton of 
mangels contains only 240 lbs. I am in- 
clined to think that land rich enough to pro- 
duce 30 tons of mangels per acre would be rich 
enough to produce 30 tons of green-corn per 
acre. And this 30 tons of green-corn would 
contain 5 tons 680 lbs. of dry matter. Or esti- 
mating that cured corn fodder contains as much 
water as clover hay, or say 20 per cent, this 30 
tons of green-corn would give 6 tons 816 lbs. of 
cured corn fodder. 
There can be little doubt that in proportion 
to the lime it occupies the ground we can ob- 
tain in many sections of the United States a 
larger amount of produce per acre from Indian 
corn than from any other crop. 
The composition of the dry substance of corn 
fodder and the dry substance of beets (100 
parts of each) is as follows : 
II 
H 
•g" 
t 
11 
6.8 
6,8 
fi1 8 
8 8 
35 8 
Beets 
98.5 
7.5 
9.8 
75.8 
0.8 
7.5 
It will be seen that the dry matter of the 
beets contains only 7a per cent of crude liber, 
while the dry coin fodder contains over 255 per 
cent. Can not, we manage to grow a variety of 
earn that contains has of this crude, indigestible 
woody fiber f 
A crop of 30 tons of green-corn per acre con- 
tains 2,280 lbs. more of crude fiber than 30 tons 
of beets. If we could get, rid of say one ton 
of this crude fiber and nine tons of water, 20 
tons would be worth far more than 30 tons. 
If there was no more crude fiber in green- 
corn than there is in beets the composition of 
the dry substance would be as follows: 
•1 
■«! 
7.5 
7.5 
IS 
7.5 
9.2 
I| 
74.9 
75.8 
3a 
3.4 
0.8 
II 
7 B 
Beets 
7.5 
Theoretically, therefore, corn fodder, if we 
could get rid of the excess of the crude fiber, 
would be nearly if not quite as nutritious as 
beets. There is a little deficiency in nitrogen- 
ous matter and a little excess in carbonaceous 
matter. A little clover or bran or oil-cake fed 
with the corn fodder would supply all the albu- 
minoids required. 
In growing corn fodder, therefore, our object 
should be to select a variety of corn that con- 
tains the least woody fiber. I do not think any 
one has turned his attention to this point. 
Nearly all the advocates of corn fodder either 
recommend growing sweet-coni or of sending 
to the South-west for seed of the large Dent 
variety. If they can get corn that will grow 
from ten to twenty feet high they think it is a 
great advantage. I once saw a stalk grown in 
this Slate that was 22 feet high. I presume it 
was .about as nutritious as a soft-maple sucker 
or a fishing-pole. 
What we want is a variety that produces the 
largest proportion of leaves and the shortest 
and smallest stalk. Instead of sending South 
for the large, late kinds of corn, we had better 
send North for the smallest variety we can find 
— and then make it grow as large as we can by 
high manuring and good cultivation. 
Corn fedder ought to he grown on dry land. 
Many fanners if they have a piece of low, rich, 
mucky land too wet to plow in the spring, sow 
it to corn fodder or buckwheat because they 
can do nothing else with it. Occasionally they 
get a good crop, hut as a rule they do not get 
corn fodder enough to pay for the labor. I 
would advise my Tennessee friend to select the 
driest and richest and mellowest land he has. 
Then drill in. the corn in rows 3 to 3i feet apart. 
Three bushels of coin per acre is none too 
much. As soon as the corn is up go through if, 
with a cultivator, and a few days later go 
through it again twice in a row. The object. In 
going twice in a row is to run the cultivator as 
close as possible to the plants and thus destroy 
all the weeds. Cultivate frequently as long as 
a horse can get between the rows of corn. If 
the land is rich enough this plan will give a 
large crop of green fodder. 
The common mistake in growing corn fodder 
is in sowing it broadcast. Three years ago I 
had three acres of warm, rich land where the 
clover had failed. We plowed it, up the last of 
May and drilled in corn, 3i feet apart, and cul- 
tivated thoroughly. We had a splendid crop. 
The next year the Deacon thought he would 
raise some too, and he sowed a piece broadcast 
on low, wet land. His crop was not worth 
cutting. Last year he concluded he would drill 
in his crop, and borrowed my drill for the pur- 
pose. After he had got through his faith failed 
him ; and he went over the piece again, drilling 
in another row between each of the first rowB. 
This of course made the rows so close together 
and so crooked that, he could not use the culti- 
vator. Weeds and corn had to grow together, 
and the result was what might have been ex- 
pected — not half a crop, and the land left in a 
foul condition. 
The essential points in raising good corn 
fodder are: (1) Rich, warm, dry land; (2) a 
small, early variety ; (3) sowing in drills wide 
enough apart to allow the use of a horse-hoe; 
(4) thick seeding in the rows; and (5) thorough 
cultivation. 
I have no time now to say anything about 
curing corn fodder. And in fact I have had 
little experience on this point. I should never 
think of growing corn solely for fodder. I 
would sow enough to insure having an abun- 
dant supply of green-corn fodder in summer, 
and if there was more than was needed cure it, 
for fodder in winter. But on my farm it would 
not. pay to grow corn for fodder in winter. It is 
too much work to cut and cure it. I can raise, 
cut, and cure clover hay cheaper. 
I do not think I ever kept my cows and 
horses so economically as during the past win- 
ter. And the cows have been fed principally 
on cut corn-stalks, with a little bran aud corn- 
meal. I drill in my coin ; and last year I not 
only had a good crop of corn, but also a large 
growth of stalks. I think this a better plan 
than raising corn fodder alone. Drill in the 
corn in rows 3i feet apart, and put on about as 
much again seed as you would if planted in 
hills; and if the land is rich enough you are 
pretty sure of a good crop of fodder, and stand 
a fair chance of getting a good crop of corn. 
This, on my farm, is better than to grow corn 
for fodder alone. 
You must not overlook that little clause "if 
the land is rich enough." It is no use trying to 
cheat the land. If the soil is not capable of 
producing a good crop of corn when planted in 
