1910. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
11T9 
NOTES ON GRAIN AND FODDER. 
Full Value from Farm Crops. 
GRINDING FEED.—Where cattle are fed on a 
large scale, when labor is scarce and expensive, and 
feed plentiful, shock corn is given the cattle in one 
or two feeds each day, and a drove of hogs is 
allowed to follow the cattle and fatten upon the poorly 
masticated and undigested corn to be found in the 
droppings. When on full feed each steer is allowed 
about one-half bushel of corn per day, and such of 
the fodder as he cares to eat. When feed is high and 
scarce and a greater profit per head is desired on a 
smaller lot of stock, the grinding of feed is desirable, 
and can be done with a good margin of 
profit. Corn-and-cob meal for horses 
makes a good feed if ground fine 
enough, and cornmeal and crushed oats 
for horses at work are recommended by 
horsemen, but for idle horses ear corn 
and whole oats seem to have the prefer¬ 
ence. Why not continue to feed the 
ground ration, but reduce the quantity 
when the horses are idle? For fatten¬ 
ing cattle ground feed is not largely 
used except for feeding show steers, 
but the few experiments made with 
ground feed as compared with whole 
gave good results, and shbwed a fair 
margin of profit over the expense of 
grinding. With dairy cattle ground 
feeds gave good results, and the profit 
was greater than in case of fattening 
cattle. In the case of hogs cornmeal, 
fed dry, gave the greatest gains of any 
method of preparing the corn ration. 
While grinding corn pays well, grinding 
the small grains pays even better, and 
in some cases is almost a necessity. It 
is claimed by good authorities that prop¬ 
erly ground corn-and-cob meal has an 
equal feeding value to the same weight 
of shelled corn, and if this be true we 
are making a profitable use of the cobs 
and getting a profit on the grinding 
also. The writer has long had faith in 
the value of grinding feed for all kinds 
of stock, and this Winter is grinding 
ear corn for horses and cattle. The 
picture, Fig. 506, shows how fine the 
corn and cobs are ground, being about 
natural size. Five 30-months-old steers, 
averaging about 1200 pounds in weight, 
are getting eight pounds of this meal 
each per day, and seem to be doing 
finely. In addition these steers are get¬ 
ting hay and fodder as roughage. To¬ 
wards Spring, if an increase in cattle 
prices occurs, this quantity will be in¬ 
creased. Though the corn-and-cob meal 
being fed is not as fine as I would like, 
it is much finer than made at custom 
mills at a charge of five cents per bushel. 
I grind this feed myself, so I can have 
it as fine as I desire, but I find that it 
is too expensive to grind much finer. 
At the fineness shown in the picture it 
costs about one cent per bushel of 70 
pounds for gasoline and oil when gaso¬ 
line costs 15 cents per gallon. It re¬ 
quires less power to grind ear corn than 
it does to grind shelled corn or wheat, 
but the cobs grind rather slower than 
the grain. Corn-and-cob meal of the 
fineness shown weighs one pound to the 
quart, or 32 pounds to the bushel, but 
when ground coarser, the grains being 
cracked once or twice, and an occasional 
whole grain, the meal will weigh more, 
perhaps one pound and two ounces to 
the quart. 
The writer prefers to feed cattle in 
small lots with a feed box for each one, 
so that each one will get its proper 
share of the grain ration. A light box 
provided with a handle makes an ex¬ 
cellent vessel for carrying the feed, and 
an empty one-half-gallon paint can makes a handy 
measure to measure out the meal with, putting two 
or more measures full in each feed box as may be 
desired by the feeder. In the majority of cases it is 
desirable and profitable to grind feed, and this is 
especially true of ear corn. However, in too many 
instances the feed is not ground to a proper fineness 
and this is the case with corn-and-cob meal almost 
universally. Corn-and-cob meal should be reasonably 
fine, because the finer it is the more of it is digested 
and the less likely it is to cause internal troubles in 
the horses or cattle eating the meal. Owing to its 
bulk corn-and-cob meal is not suitable for hogs. I 
am using a small corn-and-cob mill and two horse¬ 
power gasoline engine to grind feed for 16 steers 
and two horses, with satisfactory results. Besides 
grinding feed the mill makes good Graham and table 
meal. However, for more stock or custom grinding a 
larger outfit would be needed. 
“A HUSKING BEE."—Tbe picture at Fig. 567 
shows a shredder on a three-days job, when 1300 
bushels of corn were husked and cribbed, and several 
tons of shredded fodder put in the barn. The 
weather was very dry when this picture was taken, 
and the fodder being dry was bad to handle, and the 
shucking rolls of the machine left a lot of shucks 
on the ears. Several men may be noticed on the 
CRUSHED CORN AND COB, NATURAL SIZE. Fig. 5CG. 
A MODERN FIUSKING BEE IN OFIIO. Fig. 507. 
wagon removing the shucks from the ears, and quite 
a lot of shucks on the ground around the wagon. A 
little before the picture was taken a large pile of 
shucks had been put through the machine. In three 
days of about seven hours each 1300 bushels of corn 
were cribbed at a cost of approximately six cents per 
bushel. This cost does not include the expense of 
hauling the corn shocks from the field, as this would 
have to be done if hand shucks were employed, nor 
does it include board of the men and horse feed. 
There were about two bushels of shelled corn to 
each load of 3S bushels of husked corn, and probably 
some was blown into the mow with the fodder. The 
fodder was dry, clean and bright, and went into the 
barn in fine condition. w. e. duckwall. 
Ohio _ 
SUNFLOWERS AND CORN. 
A Profitable Mixture for the Silo. 
The picture shown at Fig. 508, was taken in the field 
of M. H. Wilcox, of Chautauqua Co., N. Y. Mr. 
Wilcox and his little granddaughter are shown, and 
also a fine pair of oxen. No use grieving over the 
small corn crop of the East when we look at this 
field. Mixed with the corn is a crop of sunflowers. 
This field contains eight acres, and there are 20,000 
stalks of sunflowers drilled in with the corn. A grain 
drill was used for putting in the mixed 
seed in drills 36 inches apart. It was 
cultivated with a 60-tooth spike harrow 
as soon as the corn came up, continued 
until six inches tall, then a two-horse 
wheel cultivator as long as it could 
straddle the rows. The crop was cut 
with a corn harvester with three horses. 
Where the stake stands with a hat on is 
12 feet tall and averages 10 feet the 
whole field. The corn and sunflowers 
were cut all together, and filled one 
round silo 12x24 feet and one 11 feet 
square and 20 feet t»U, and there was 
enough left to fill them again shocked 
up, which is now being fed to stock. 
Mr. Wilcox will tell us more about the 
quality of this sunflower silage. 
ALFALFA IN ALABAMA. 
In regard to cultivating Alfalfa, I sow 
in 20-inch rows, using a hand drill 
seeder. That was the only way I could 
have equidistant rows, which are neces¬ 
sary to success with this plan, as I clean 
out the whole mdidle at one passage of 
the cultivator. I made a three-tooth 
cultivator for this purpose by taking the 
two front standards off an old five- 
tooth cultivator, and closing the side 
beams so they are 11 or 12 inches apart, 
setting one of the side standards a little 
in advance of the other. I use the nar¬ 
rowest teeth, U4 inch only, on grown 
Alfalfa, but when it is little I put side 
hoes on the two outside standards. 
These turn the soil slightly away from 
the young plants and protect them from 
clods. A man and a steady horse can 
tend about 3 / acres per day with such 
a tool, and do far better work than is 
possible with a disk harrow, and the 
young Alfalfa is not injured but is 
greatly benefited, as Alfalfa seems as 
grateful for tillage as cabbage or sweet 
potatoes, and what is not generally 
known, will stand transplanting equally 
as well. 
I found I had to devise some way to 
protect Alfalfa from crab grass, and 
the thousand and one weeds which in¬ 
fest cultivated land in our long, hot, 
moist Summers, and that is the best I 
could do. It not only protects it from 
weeds, but it helps to conserve moisture 
and breaks the crust also. I cultivate 
after each cutting and roll to smooth 
the land for the mower. I also culti¬ 
vate the first Fall after sowing to kill 
pepper grass and a host of such weeds 
that winter over here and go to seed 
in March before the Alfalfa is big 
enough to cut. These, though small, 
take nourishment from the Alfalfa. I 
sow, preferably, in July or August. 
Sometimes when the soil is very dry 
the seed remains unharmed for a month, 
and the first showers bring it up in three 
days. This early-sown Alfalfa gets big 
enough to work before cold weather. I 
Fig. 503. cannot imagine why people put off sow¬ 
ing Alfalfa till Fall, unless they think it 
is like clover, unable to stand heat. But Alfalfa 
siands heat as well as corn, melons or cotton. In fact 
it is a heat plant. Cold combined with wet is what 
it will not stand while young. 
Clay Co., Ala. joshua franklin. 
Tub French Government now permits American potatoes 
to be imported on condition that they are sound and 
with clear skins. 
We understand that samples of commercial lime-sul¬ 
phur which are sold in New York State have been taken 
and will be analyzed. That is right—this material will 
be used freely and farmers should know what they are 
baying. 
CORN AND SUNFLOWERS GROWN FOR SILAGE. 
