4SSS 
1 S3 
subdued and the soil loose uutil the crop 
began to shove tassels, and then I would leave 
it until it matui’ed, being sure to cut it at the 
roots as soon as ripe or glazed, and stook up 
with about 20 hills to a stook. The usual aver¬ 
age of corn for this immediate vicinity will 
run not far from 80 bushels of ears to the 
acre; that is, in good corn years. 
Fluvanna, N. Y. h. a. w. } 
IN NEW JERSEY. 
My accounts show that my corn crop sold 
and fed to stock amounts to just about $35 per 
acre. This is far above the average for this 
State. I have failed of a crop but once in 18 
years. My first effort is to get a good, uni¬ 
form stand of plants. I notice that missing 
hills that are replanted rarely make much 
more than fodder. I select a piece of sod 
laud, plow it carefully about as deep as the 
top soil runs, and the flatter I can turn it over 
the better I like it. My object in this is to 
get the sod all under, so as to feed the crop at 
the time of setting the ears. I theu roll the 
ground and commence to pulverize with har¬ 
row aud cultivator and keep at it until I get 
the soil well Sued down. The ground is now 
ready for planting, after it has been marked 
out with a furrowing machine. Good, sound 
seed is, of course, necessary. Many planters 
want a “starter” in the hill. I don’t. I killed 
a crop with a “starter,” and now all I want to 
do is to soak the seed in a solution of fresh 
cow manure and soot. I use my manure all 
in the form of compost, with some fertilizer 
mixed in the heap. This manure is scattered 
over the seed and the earth is brushed or 
raked over it. With this plan I never fail to 
get a good stand. Those who try it will never 
go back to the old plan of putting the manure 
under the seed. 
As soon as the corn is nicely up I start the 
cultivator and keep it going at intervals un¬ 
til the ears are well set, when I stop cultivat¬ 
ing. I used to plow corn like others, but for 
the last ten years I have used nothing but the 
cultivator. It works the ground better than 
the plow and quite deep enough. My reason for 
planting as I do, is simply this : While corn is 
a large seed it has one of the teuderest of 
germs, and if there is anything to interfere 
with its sending its tap-root deep into the 
fresh earth, it is not likely to make a good 
plant or produce a good ear. Corn planted 
in this way sends its roots deeper in the earth, 
stands the drought better, aud is able to re¬ 
sist much better the storms of rain and wind. 
Kingston, N, J. j. p. 
FODDER CORK. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
<S 'towell's Evergreen for summer and fall 
feeding; common yellow corn for cured 
winter feed; when and how to plant; when 
to cut; experiments in planting at various 
distances apart.; corn fodder more profit¬ 
able than hay for stock feed; increased 
appreciation of its value. 
One of the Rural subscribers at Camden, 
Delaware, asks some questions about growing 
fodder corn or corn for fodder. He writes: 
“I usually have a good many vacant nooks 
aud corners about July, which I want to have 
produce cow-feed; what is the best crop and 
how shall I manage it? Will Stowell’s Ever¬ 
green Corn, planted July 1st,do to cut up and 
stook for winter-feeding, or is it better to 
plant the common yellow corn in May for this 
purpose? Stowell’s corn costs $3 per bushel, 
common corn 60 cents. Is one grain to each 
four inches too thick to plant?” 
For 25 years past I have fed every winter 
at least four times as much fodder as hay, and 
every year adds to my appreciation of its 
value. I am wintering 12 head of cattle and 
horses on corn fodder this season, and I 
never had stock do better or keep in finer 
condition. For summer aud fall feeding, 
especially for milch cows, I prefer Stowell’s 
Evergreen to any other variety, and I plant 
all vacaut spots in June and July with this 
corn. That planted before July 4th makes 
roasting ears and is often quite profitable; 
but it all pays for the cattle. For winter 
feeding, if to be cured, I much prefer the field 
corn and early planting. If the Stowell’s 
Evergreen Corn is cut when the fodder is in 
the best condition, the ears are sure to mold, 
and if left to stand uutil the ears are ripe 
enough to keep, the fodder has passed its 
prime. The yellow field corn, however, will 
ripen the ears while the stalks arc still in ex¬ 
cellent condition, and can be thoroughly 
cured with almost no risk. 
I think one grain to each four inches of row 
is a little too thick for profitable planting, 
io make the best fodder, each stalk should 
have room to grow so as to develop perfectly 
and form an ear. The ears need not be 
huge, and if the fodder is to be fed without 
husking it is better that they should not be; 
but the stalks will not develop their best qual¬ 
ities if crowded so that the ears do not form. 
I believe that rows three and a half feet apart 
and one stalk to each six inches of drill will 
give the best and most profitable yield of 
fodder. 
I have watched with great interest a series 
of experiments, begun six years or more ago, 
at the Ohio Experiment Station, in which 
some 20 plots of corn have been planted each 
year at different distances apart. In all years 
when there was an average amount of rain 
at earing time the corn planted one stalk to 
each six inches of row, with rows three and a 
half feet apart, made about as much grain as 
that planted in the ordinary way, which gives 
about half as many stalks, and in one or two 
instances the yield was greater. From 50 to 
60, and in one instance over 80, bushels of 
corn to the acre were grown. The yield of 
cured fodder per acre in the most favorable 
year from this thick planting was a little 
over five tons, after the ears had been 
husked, and reducing the 60 bushels of corn- 
70 pounds to the bushel—to pounds, a little 
over two tons of corn, making a total cured 
product of over seven tens to the acre. 
This yield was exceptional, as the season was 
very favorable; but in four years out of five 
the average yield of stalks and corn was five 
tons per acre, or, putting in the year of 
severe drought to balance against the year 
when seven tons were grown, the average 
yield was four and two-fifths tons per acre of 
corn and fodder. I consider this feed superior 
to bay, as the amount of corn in it makes it 
a stronger and better-balanced ration than 
hay, and the yield is more than double that of 
the average hay crop. 
It seems strange to me that our farmers 
have been so slow in learning the value of 
corn fodder and the best methods of handling 
it. Millions of acres of it are yet absolutely 
wasted each year, and on mauy farms worse 
than wasted; for the land is damaged in pas¬ 
turing the stalks twice what they are worth. 
It is gratifying to notice, however, that the 
farmers are being educated rapidly in this 
matter, and that there are large accessions 
each year to the numbers of those who value 
and carefully save and wisely use corn fodder. 
The thi-ashing machines are beginning now 
either to thrash the corn or shred the fodder 
to a considerable extent, and in the near future 
most of our fodder will be run through the 
thrasher and handled like hay, or else will be 
cut up and preserved in the silo. 
LISTING CORN. 
PROFESSOR J. W. SANBORN. 
I have had no experience with listing corn 
and hence can only reason upon the subject 
in the abstract, which I dislike to do for pub¬ 
lic use. I see no sound reason for the practice, 
and in fact no reason save economy, and 
economy in tillage has already been carried 
too far. A few of the essential conditions of 
tillage are the most complete separation of 
the particles of soiMield together by adhesion, 
that it is practicably possible to get, in order 
to favor root development and easy after til¬ 
lage; the lightening and opening of the soil to 
the air in order to facilitate soil disintegra¬ 
tion. and that even mechanical division of the 
soil that favors an equable diffusion of moist¬ 
ure, air, and heat in the soil and yet admits 
after surface tillage in a manner best calcu¬ 
lated to conserve soil moisture. 
Listing answers neither purpose. It cuts a 
drill-mark out of compact ground, leaving 
the surrounding soil compact against the 
movements of both air and moisture ; while 
in case of too much rain this excavation re¬ 
ceives an overdose of water. A loose ridge 
of earth is rolled up to dry out. It is true 
that after cultivation between the rows partly 
overcomes this trouble ; but only partly over¬ 
comes it. If it is plowed out, corn roots are 
cut, and the land is ridged for rapid drying 
out. The plow for corn tillage is an abomina¬ 
tion. The lister always appeared to me to 
be a makeshift device to enable the easy 
prosecution of a type of farming that is 
makeshift in character, with little to com¬ 
mend it. If the lister is a good implement, 
then our philosophy of tillage will have to be 
recast, and the new system will have for its 
motto “ How not to till.” 
In the above remarks, I have confined my 
views to the common practice of listing with¬ 
out previous plowing, and only give expres¬ 
sion to an opinion. I venture the assertion 
that opinions unsupported by accurate obser¬ 
vation have but little value in so complex 
a business as agriculture. Those who use 
listers often claim good results. For the 
above reason I would not accept the loose ob¬ 
servation of those who desire to justify the 
practice, as conclusive. 
oat crop. It is the third cereal of importance 
in the United States. The figures for 1880 
were, corn 1,754,861,535 bushels; wheat, 459,- 
479,505; oats, 407,858,999. Oats vary less in 
price from year to year than any other grain, 
yet they are the most exclusive grain, being 
grown on a comparatively limited area In 
1880 the 10 States of Illinois, Iowa, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Michigan and Indiana produced 80 
per cent, of the entire crop. These same 
States produced 64 per cent, of the corn crop 
and 59 per cent, of the wheat crop. Oat sec¬ 
tions are generally horse sections just as corn 
sectious are generally hog sections. The oat 
is one of the hardiest of grains,and is less sub¬ 
ject to attack from injurious insects than corn 
or wheat. It is a grain specially well adapted 
for temperate climates. It cannot be dis¬ 
pensed with for certain feeding purposes and 
is now almost indispensable as an article of 
human consumption. The straw is worth 
more for fodder than that of any other cereal. 
As part of a system of soiling crops it is indis¬ 
pensable. The plant is like rye in the fact 
that it will grow aud thrive on poor soils with 
little manure, though it will respond quickly 
enough to good treatment. It will grow on 
any soil that can be plowed and harrowed. 
Experiments by Hellriegel and Stoeckhardt 
indicate that oats can be grown with a small¬ 
er proportion of nitrogen in the soil than is 
required for rye, barley or wheat. The value 
of the oat plant is greatly determined by the 
weather. It is concluded that pleasant, warm 
weather tends to the production of plump 
nitrogenous seeds and poor feeding straw, 
while unfavorable, cold weather tends to the 
formation of seeds poor in nitrogen and of 
straw rich in that element. 
Professor Storer calls attention to the fact 
that new oats are unfit to be given to work¬ 
ing horses. Their effect, he says, is to loosen 
the bowels of the animals, to render them apt 
to sweat easily, aud, in general, to put them 
out of condition. Why these effects are 
produced is not known. In a few months 
after harvest, and especially after cold 
weather, the oats undergo a change of some 
kind and are then fit to be fed to horses. Oats 
are generally fed whole. Crushing or grind¬ 
ing is not considered as necessary with them 
as with corn. Farmers have mostly satisfied 
themselves on this point by their own experi¬ 
ence. Professor Storer indicates chemical 
reasons for feeding oats whole. Studies by 
Samson, in France, he says, proved that oats 
contained an excitant, to which the name of 
“avenin” has been given. This substance is 
capable of exciting the motor cells of the ner¬ 
vous system. It was found that crushing or 
grinding the oats considerably weakens their 
power of excitation. Probably the air works 
to destroy the avenin. Thus, although we 
have the best of evidence that the whole grain 
is not always completely digested, there is a 
good argument in favor of the practice. It 
may be supposed, however, that oats crushed 
immediately before being fed would be more 
easily digested, and would lose little of this 
‘avenin.” 
THE OAT CROP. 
There are several striking facts about the 
A MINNESOTA OPINION. 
We Westerners of this section at least, never 
use any chemical fertilizers. We manure 
corn ground usually with barn-yard manure 
-at least a part of the field. 
Contrary to the usual practice here, I mark 
corn ground only one way; plant with hand- 
planter, taking short steps, planting a hill 
every step. This saves walking and cul¬ 
tivating the short way, and as my fields are 
usually a half-mile long and only 10 to 20 rods 
wide this is quite au item. 
As manure for oats, I use corn-stalks. At 
least I do not cut my corn, and if the stalks 
do not decay in time to be of value to the oat 
crop that I sow after corn, they are there for 
the following crop, whatever that may be. 
If the corn ground is free from weeds, it 
is all ready for either oats, or wheat. If 
not free from weeds, I usually plow in the 
spring because we don’t get the corn husked 
till it freezes up in the fall. I plow with a 
16-inch sulky plow and roll everything under 
so that the field looks black and nice. I har¬ 
row with my short tooth harrow, shown in 
the Rural about a year ago, three horses 
drawing and the driver riding. This packs 
the soil down around the stalks and keeps it 
from drying out. 
Sow with a broadcast seeder and harrow 
again with the slant-tooth harrow. Two horses 
draw this time and the driver walks. 
For putting in the crop on corn ground 
(stalks all there) without plowing, we use 
“the Acme,” thensow with a broadcast seeder 
with shovels up so as not to drag the stalks 
out; harrow again with the “ Acme,” and 
expect a bounteous harvest. 
The largest crop of wheat ever raised in 
this neighborhood since the land was new was 
raised in this way, I think. But the ground 
must be kept clean when it is in corn, or it 
will be far better to plow it. 
Now, a few words in justification of my 
way of treating corn fodder. It costs about 
$1.50 per acre, including board, to cutitup. It 
costs considerably more to husk it when cut, 
binding fodder, stacking, etc,, say, $1 more. 
That makes $2.50 in expenses for the feed 
value of the fodder. Bear in mind that by 
leaving it on the ground we get the full man¬ 
ure value for nothing. Now I estimate the 
yield at two tons, which is too much I think 
for our Western corn. Suppose this to be 
fed long in the yards, probably not over 
one-third of it will be eaten—certainly not 
over one-half, which will be one ton. 
Now as the supply of carbohydrates is al¬ 
most unlimited here at the West on account 
of the superabundance of straw, the mam 
item in considering the worth of a fodder is 
the protein, so corn fodder is worth not 
more than half as much as clover hay. 
Now, I was actually short of hay last year, 
1886, and had 18 acres of Yellow Dutton flint 
corn and never but a stalk of it, because 
clover was abundant in the neighborhood, 
and being grown for seed, the first crop was 
sold cheap. I bought, to finish filling the 
barn, 4 y, tons of clover hay (cured without 
rain) in the cock for $2 per ton. Allowing good 
wages for hauling it home (half a mile), it cost 
me about $3 a ton in the mow. Now as the 
cattle would eat only one ton of corn fodder 
from an acre at a cost of $2.50, and that ton 
was worth only half as much as a ton of 
clover, it will be seen that I would have lost 
one dollar an acre on every acre of corn I cut. 
More than that, I now have, free of cost, the 
manure value of 4j^ tons of clover hay—no 
mean item in the account, if there is any¬ 
thing in what we read about the value of 
manure. a. c. carpenter. 
Dakota, Co., Minn. 
IOWA NOTES. 
If I wished to mate a good crop of oats 
this or any other season, I would want to sow 
on fall plowed lands. This I would cultivate 
well, would sow the oats—two bushels per 
acre—by hand, and harrow in with a good 
harrow. Lean’s 80-tooth, all-steel harrow, 
made at Mansfield, Ohio, is the best I have 
ever seen for putting in grain or for harrow¬ 
ing young corn, I would sow as soon as the 
frost was out of the ground, and the land 
dry enough to work well. If I could not have 
fall plowing, I would waut to plow in 
the spring before sowing. I find it pays to 
take time to plow the laud. It would make 
a good farmer groan to see some of our West¬ 
ern farmers go out in the spring and sow 
their oats in a field of corn-stalks that has 
been trodden all winter by stock; then take a 
cultivator and scratch the seed in. Sometimes 
they harrow them, and sometimes the oats 
get up so they cannot harrow. I have seen 
here, in the West, fields of oats in which the 
corn-stalks were left standing until the har¬ 
vest time. As oat straw is valuable for feed¬ 
ing cattle, I should want to harvest the crop 
before the straw gets dead-ripe. I would cut 
after the grain begins to hardeu out of the 
dough state. If the crop is cut then the grain 
is not injured, while the straw is more valua¬ 
ble for feed. As to manures, I have never 
used anything but barnyard manure. It is 
best to have this plowed in in the fall, yet it 
will pay to spread aud plow in in the spring 
when it was not done in the fall. This would 
be my plan for a good crop of oats. 
Polk Co., Iowa. f. s. WHITE. 
NEW YORK NOTES. 
Spread barnyard manure over the land 
now, if it can be done; plow shallow as soon 
as the land is dry enough; harrow it well and 
sow with the oats, either broadcast or by drill, 
100 to 300 pounds per acre, according to the 
amount of manure used-superphosphate ni- 
trogenized or ammoniated. The earlier oats 
are put in the better. After sowing, roll the 
ground with a heavy roller. Cut the oats as 
soon as the most of them are past the milky 
state and the heads begin to look white. 
Saratoga Co., N. Y. f. d. curtis 
To prepare the ground for oats, in the first 
place I plow sod that has been mowed or pas¬ 
tured three years, and plant it with corn or 
potatoes and work it thoroughly,it having been 
previously manured. In the fall I plow the 
ground, as I think it will stand the drought 
better than if plowing is put off until spring, 
while it will stand the wet just as well. The 
earlier oats are sown in the spring the better 
will be the crop. The next day after I had 
sown oats the ground has frozen so hard that 
it bore up a team of horses and a wagon, and 
yet there was a splendid crop. But one must 
not work the ground when it is too wet. If 
this is done the land will be hard and there 
will not be many oats. I sow with the drill, 
about two bushels to the acre; when I sowed 
