SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
11 
age made from corn grown in Georgia. Had it not been 
for the ravages of the “army worm,” early frost, and 
drouth, his hay crops, grown the first year of his South- 
ern farming on poor land near Athens, would have filled 
fwo barns of a liberal size for the State of New York. Poor 
land far from the sea coast, requires not only domestic 
manure in abundance, but that it be produced at the small- 
est possible cost. Now, if meat, the flesh of young mules 
and horses, and the wool and mutton of sheep will pay 
for their growth on the farm, it is clear that an indefinite 
quantity of stable manure may be had for nothing. 
Fixing our mind steadily on the great purpose of ascer- 
taining the best way to bring all the old fields of the 
planting States into fruitfulness and profit, we find the 
want of skill in the care of stock during the winter moi'ths 
to be the most serious impediment. Where millions of 
of cattle, horses, mules and sheep ought to be kept in a 
growing, or in a fattening condition, are seen animals 
badly fed, often dying before grass comes in spring, and 
almost universally w’asting their droppings — the loss of 
which makes the soil poorer for their subsistence thereon. 
To remove these defects in our present stock husbandry 
is an object of the first importance ; for it must precede 
the general improvement of the tilled lands of the South. 
We cannot afford to purchase foreign guano, or other fer- 
tilizers for that purpose. Science and experience alike 
teaches us that the subsoil and the atmosphere will yield 
the food of agricultural plants in sufficient quantity to en- 
rich the surface soil. Nor does the consumption of these 
plants by animals materially impair their value for mak- 
ing either rich mould or minerals at and near the surface 
of the ground for the nourishment of growing crops. If, 
however, the excrements of our animals, formed of ingre- 
dients taken from the soil, be not restored to it again, the 
land so treated must lose some of its fertility and value 
every year. But as plants can be made to draw largely 
on other sources than the surface soil for their aliments, to 
return to the latter all the manure that may be made from 
said plants is a sure process for increasing both the fruit- 
fulness and value of arated fields. This is entirely prac- 
ticable without the intervention of domesticated animals) 
but less profitable to one who knows how to make money 
by stock growing. For this purpose, fodder pulling is too 
expensive; and, fortunately, it is wholly unnecessary, 
Where one has hundreds of acres of corn, he can afford to 
lose a vast amount of nourishment for stock, by leaving 
four-fifths of it in his fields to be gathered in part by his 
cattle in winter. But so much alimentary matter as de- 
cays in his fields unconsumed, involves a loss, provided 
the flesh of mules, and neat stock is worth more than 
the cost of gathering and feeding to them food already 
grown. Believing that forage can be produced at a 
liberal profit from corn, peas and grass, and finding thus 
far no serious difficulty in curing the plants named, we 
give our practice for what it may be worth. 
To mature the ear or ears on each stalk, we leave all 
the blades below them, and cut off the stalk just above the 
ear at fodder-pulling time. At the North this practice is 
called “topping corn.” The stalks and leaves so cut are 
set up in small shocks till cured ; and they should not take 
the weather a day longer than is necessary to dry them 
for the barn or stack. Such is brifly our plan for making 
good forage from stout corn. If the plants are compara- 
tively small, we cut them at the ground, or below the ears 
— higher or lower according to the size of stalks. Even 
large corn stalks if c’.^t and c”if-^d at the proper time, con- 
tain more than twice the nutritive matter per 100 pounds 
that IS found in cc n cobs which are often ground and fed 
with meal. Our remarks on this point are based on per- 
sonal exp rience in f eding a dairy of fifty cows for weeks 
on known weights of steeped cobs with meal, and steeped 
cut corn stalks, expressly to learn whether the stalk or 
the cob was the better alimentary substance. After corn 
plants are ripe, the elements, rain, dew, sunshine, frost 
and atmospheric air remove all soluble and volatile ingre- 
dients from them much faster than many suppose, if they 
are permitted to stand out singly in the field. Thus de- 
prived of their nutritive matter, old and weathered stalks 
are little better than small sticks of wood for feeding cat- 
tle. These facts apply to the stems of all forage plants, 
and indicate the reason why we urge the propriety of cut- 
ting and cui'ing all plants of this character, and of house- 
ing them, before they part with any of their most valu- 
able ingredients. In short, our system gives us first-rate 
hay at a cost not exceeding two or three dollars a ton — 
about the home value, dry weight, of good manure. 
We have not as yet erected an apparatus for cutting 
up and steeping large corn stalks ; but if we do not find 
the new Sugar Cane better than our old favorite maize for 
feeding stock, we shall endeavor to grow and work up 
corn to the best possible advantage. Indigenous to this 
continent, corn is the king of all American plants. If any 
plant from China can beat it, we shall rejoice thereat, and 
adopt it for making hay as well as sweetning. In this 
connection we will state that we have recently seen a fine 
dairy of thirty cows in the District of Columbia kept al- 
most exclusively on the Chinese Sugar Cane. The forage 
had been housed some months and the hard stalks v/ere 
cut up on a block of wood with a hand axe before they 
were given to the cows. They were eaten so freely, and 
gave such returns in milk and flesh as prompted the writer 
to procure sufficient to plant some forty or fifty acres for 
his own use. As much more may be done with corn 
plants than is now generally practiced, we are by no 
means sanguine that any cereal is better for our climate 
and soil. 
If we have got one that is equal to maize in economic 
value, its introduction will mark a new era in American 
agriculture. However useful the sorghum saccharatum 
may ultimately prove, it is destined to be seriously dam- 
aged by the over-praiseof its visionary advocates. There 
are few trees more valuable than the Morns MuUicaulis ; 
and yet the enthusiasm of a popular epidemic killed it 
outright. 
Both corn stalks and those of the Chinese Sugar Cane 
are best cured in shocks standing on their butts, on dry 
ground. We have made ten acres of pea vine hay the 
past season, and found more difficulty in the process than 
we ever had in making hay from broadcast corn. Not to 
lose the leaves of the vines, we treat them as we do heavy 
clover in making it into hay — handle as little as possible, 
and that carefully. It is idle to think of making hay by 
the hundred tons, which is needed on a farm of three or 
four hundred acres by putting it when green upon poles, 
or fences, or on scaffolds in barns or sheds. 
It must be cured on the ground where the plants grow, 
with no needless labor. One who cannot do this, will 
