3878 .] 
15 
AMERICAN AG-RICQLTURIS 
more proposes to conduct some thoroughly well 
considered experiments on a sufficiently large scale 
to give data of substantial value. 
Talks on Farm Crops.—No. 11. 
By the Author of “ Walks and Talks on the Farm," 
“Harris on the Pig," etc. 
I have always had a prejudice against corn-fodder. 
I thought it was too bulky a crop in proportion to 
its nutriment. If fed green, we had to cut and 
draw 20 tons of material to get 3 tons of dry fod¬ 
der of far less value than clover hay. I thought 
so long as we continued to plow under clover for 
manure, there was little sense or economy in raising 
a poorer article for food. But we find it is not al¬ 
ways an easy matter to raise clover. In fact, for 
half a dozen years back, I have not had a really 
good crop of clover on the farm, and if it had 
not been for corn-fodder, I should not have been 
able to carry the desired amount of stock. 
I raised corn-fodder because I could get the 
necessary food in no other way. Corn-fodder is a 
sure crop, and while by no means equal to clover 
hay, it is a good deal better than nothing. In 
fact, the longer I raise it, the better I like the crop. 
I have raised it, not for soiling, but for fodder in 
winter. For this purpose, it is certainly a most 
desirable crop on my farm. 
I have thought it might be better to plant a 
larger area of corn, using the grain for the pigs, 
and the stalks for cattle and sheep. But the corn- 
crop, in this section, requires too much work during 
the short and busy days of autumn to admit of a 
greatly extended area. But this objection does not 
hold in regard to com grown exclusively for fod¬ 
der. There is no husking. All we have to do is 
to cut the crop with a reaping machine, and bind 
it into bundles, and put it in large stooks for the 
winter. As soon as we get a good reaper and 
binder that will cut and bind the corn into sheaves, 
it is clear to my mind that there is no crop that 
we can grow in this climate, with the same amount 
of expense, that will afford so much food per acre. 
“ That may be all so,” said the Doctor, “ but the 
trouble is that the corn-fodder is not rich enough. 
There is more food per acre, it may be, than in any 
other of our commonly cultivated crops, but this 
actual food is mixed with too great a quantity of 
indigestible woody-fibre. If we could get rid of 
500 lbs. of woody-fibre out of every ton of dry 
corn-fodder, the 1,500 lbs. that would be left 
would be worth far more, in my judgment, than the 
ton. If I had two acres of good rich land nicely 
prepared for drilling in corn-fodder, and was of¬ 
fered two varieties of corn, one of which was 
warranted to produce 6 tons per acre, and another 
4 tons per acre, I would take the variety that would 
produce the smallest crop, in the hope that the 4 
tons would contain as much, or nearly as much, 
actual food as the 6 tons, and if so, it would not 
only cost less to harvest it, but it would be far 
more profitable as a milk or flesh producing food 
than the six tons. “I do not say,” continued the 
Doctor, “that we have varieties of corn that will 
afford a small yield of unusually rich fodder. But 
if we have, those are the varieties that we ought 
to grow. And our Experiment Station might do a 
worse thing than to investigate this subject.” 
“ Prof. 8. W. Johnson,” said I, “ has made some 
careful analyses of corn-fodder that are of unusual 
interest, and his remarks on the subject, like 
everything from his pen, are of great value.” 
“Very true,” said the Doctor, “ but they do not 
touch the real point. We are told how much corn- 
fodder was raised per acre, and how much nutri¬ 
ment the crop contained. But that is all. There 
is nothing to compare it with. It is good as far as 
it goes, but it does not go far enough.” 
After the Doctor had gone, the Deacon remarked: 
“ Some people are hard to please. I do not know 
when I have read anything that pleased me so much 
as this same paper on corn-fodder.” 
“ It is indeed a remarkable paper,” said I. “Just 
6uch a paper as one would expect from the author 
of ‘ How Crops Grow,’ and ‘ How Crops Feed,’ 
the two best books on scientific agriculture that 
have appeared during the last thirty years.” 
The fodder-corn, analyzed by Prof. Johnson, was 
grown by Mr. J. J. Webb, near New Haven, Conn. 
The variety sown was the Southern or Norfolk 
White. Three bushels of seed were drilled in per 
acre in rows two feet apart. Two crops were raised, 
one sown from 10 to 15 days later than the other. 
The crop was cut September 1st. The yield of 
the early sown field was as follows : 
When cut, September 1.25 1 /., tons per acre. 
Cured in field, November 11. 5y 6 “ “ 
In barn, February 8 . 8 V 2 “ “ 
The yield of the late sown crop was as follows : 
When cut, September 1.27 tons per acre. 
Cured in field, November 11. 4 4 /s “ “ 
Iu barn, February 8 . 7 J /a “ “ 
It is a curious fact, that 5>/ 0 tons of corn-fodder 
put in the barn, in November, should weigh 81 tons 
in February. Prof. Johnson attributes it to the 
fact that the weather was very dry and fine in the 
fall, and the corn-fodder was exceptionally well 
cured in the field. But the winter was very rainy 
and damp, “and the loosely packed corn-fodder 
gained moisture.” 
“I have always known,” 6aid the Deacon, “that 
corn-fodder would get limp and soft in dark 
weather, but did not suppose that it would attract 
so much moisture.” 
“Cattle,” said Mr. Strong, who has had con¬ 
siderable experience in feeding corn-fodder, “ will 
always eat corn-fodder better if it is flung out on 
the barn floor in damp weather, or out of doors 
where the dew will moisten it. It will gather 
moisture like a sponge.” 
The following table shows the average composi¬ 
tion of the two crops of corn-fodder at the time it 
was cut, Sept. 1, and also when well cured in the 
field, Nov. 11, and again after it had been loosely 
6tored away in the barn until February 10. The 
composition of the fodder, when entirely free from 
water, is given in the last column. 
TABLE SHOWING TUE COMPOSITION OP CORN-FODDER. 
O rH 
$ 
Ih 
d 
1 
g 
e 
£5 
4 
In the Dry Fod¬ 
der entirely free 
from Water. 
Water. 
86.11 
27.25 
54.35 
Ash. 
0.79 
4.19 
2.64 
5.76 
Albuminoids. 
0.83 
4.38 
2.76 
6.03 
Fat, etc. 
0.25 
1.31 
.82 
1.80 
Cellulose. 
0.77 
24.97 
15.66 
34.32 
Carbo-hydrates (starch, sugar, 
gum. etc.). 
7.25 
37.89 
23.75 
52.09 
Good clover hay contains about 16 per cent of 
water. The corn-fodder contains, when fed out 
iu February, 54 per cent—nearly 3i times as much. 
Good clover, when cut just as it is coming into 
blossom in June, contains 75 per cent of water, but 
we often let clover grow, until I question whether 
it contains 50 per cent of water. In other words, it 
is not as succulent as corn-fodder in our damp sea¬ 
shore climate in winter. The relish with which 
cattle and sheep will eat com-fodder, after they 
have been fed for some time on dry hay, is doubt¬ 
less due to the greater succulence of the corn- 
fodder. It is not because it is richer. In fact, the 
corn-fodder grown by Mr. Webb was not nearly so 
nutritious as good Timothy or clover hay. 
Prof. Johnson gives the following table, showing 
the average composition of German hay and Ger¬ 
man corn-fodder, as compared with the American 
corn-fodder. The figures represent the amount of 
ingredients in 100 parts of the dry hay and fodder. 
German. 
Mi-.Webb’s. 
Meadow 
Hay. 
Fed 
Clover. 
Maize 
Fodder. 
Maize 
Fodder. 
Ash. ... 
7.7 
7.4 
6.7 
5.8 
Albuminoids—so-called 
flesh- 
11.8 
16.6 
12.4 
6.0 
Fat. 
2.7 
2.7 
3.7 
1.8 
29.9 
30.1 
29.3 
34.3 
Carbo-hydrates, (starch, 
sucar, etc.) . 
gum, 
47.9 
43.2 
47.9 
52.1 
The German corn-fodder is quite as nutritious as 
good hay, but the American corn-fodder is decid¬ 
edly inferior. This is doubtless due to the fact that 
T. 
a large growing variety of corn was sown by Mr. 
Webb. Some of the stalks were 14 feet high. It 
produced too much woody-fibre. For corn-fodder, 
we want a small variety and rich land. A lover of 
celery prefers to grow the “ Incomparable Dwarf ” 
rather than the “ Immeasurable Mammoth.” 
In the condition in which the corn-fodder was 
fed out in the winter, the average yield per acre 
was 8 tons of corn-fodder, containing an amount 
of absolute nutriment fully equally to 4 tons of 
good hay. So far as the yield per acre is concerned, 
therefore, corn-fodder is decidedly a profitable 
crop. The objection to the crop is, that it is too 
bulky—too innutritious. Such a crop as that grown 
by Mr. Webb could be used to advantage by a 
farmer who takes horses to board for the winter at 
so much per head per week. It will keep them 
alive and healthy. But for cows giving milk, 
or for young stock, or for fattening cattle, it Is not 
rich enough. We want such animals to eat all the 
food they can digest, and such com-fodder as that 
under consideration is too bulky. The stomachs 
of the animals will not hold all that could be 
digested. And in feeding such corn-fodder we 
must give the animals more or less grain or oil 
cake. It will pay well to do so, but it would pay 
still better to grow a richer and less bulky crop. 
“ It is easy enough,” said the Deacon, “ to grow 
a less bulky crop.” 
“True,” said I; “but possibly not so easy to 
grow a crop rich in nutriment. This is the point 
that farmers and scientific men should investigate. 
If I was going to raise peas to cut green for hay, 
I would not select ‘Champion of England.’ The 
‘ Little Gem,’ or some other dwarf kind, would 
give a less bulky, but far more nutritious crop of 
hay ; and it can not be doubted that the skill and 
intelligence which produced the dwarf pea, can pro¬ 
duce a dwarf and highly nutritious variety of corn 
to be grown for fodder. These skillful plant- 
breeders will give us just what variety we ask for, 
and we should be careful to ask for that which is 
really good, and not for that which is merely 
‘big.’ Then, when wc have a fine, small-growing 
variety, we should sow early, on dry land, well and 
properly manured, either directly or indirectly. 
We should have a crop, say 6 feet high, and yield¬ 
ing 3 tons of the richest, and choicest, and most 
easily-digested ‘maize hay’ that could be cut and 
bound into sheaves by a reaper, at a cost not to ex¬ 
ceed the cost of cutting and curing hay.” 
“ There is one thing,” said the Deacon, “ in favor 
of sowing a small variety of corn for fodder. It 
will cure much more rapidly than the large varieties 
that have thick, long stalks. The larger the pro¬ 
portion of leaf to stalk, the quicker it will cure.” 
“That is very true,” said I, “and I doubt not 
that we could cure the corn-fodder, or ‘ maize hay,’ 
during our hot August or September weather ; so 
that it could be put at once into the barn or stack, 
just as we do other hay. Such corn-fodder as I 
raised this year from a small early variety of our 
common corn, I think might have been stacked 
with perfect safety, especially if a layer of dry 
straw had been placed between each layer of stalks. 
I have tried stacking corn-fodder with greater or 
less success. I can see now where I have erred. 
We have postponed the operation too long. When 
the corn-fodder is well cured, the sooner it is 
in the stack or barn, the better. It will evidently 
attract a larger amount of moisture when exposed 
to a damp atmosphere ; and it must be remembered 
that this external moisture is far more likely to 
cause the fodder to mold than the moisture or sap 
which is in the plants. The crop is rich enough in 
gum, starch, and sugar, to keep it from fermenting ; 
or, if it is not, it ought to be, and would be, if we 
raised a small rich variety. 
Present Value of Cows.—Public sales are a 
very certain index of values. The following prices 
realized for cows at recent sales in Eastern Penn¬ 
sylvania, where there is not only good stock, but 
an active demand for animals at all times, will tend 
to show what ordinary farm cows are now worth. 
A sale of 20 averaged $42.86 per head ; 25 others 
brought an average of $53.05 each, and another sale 
of 55 ordinary good animals made an average of $52. 
