Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1874 — Saving Fodder and Husking Corn. [ARTICLE]

Saving Fodder and Husking Corn.

In the East so much value is placed upon the stalks of corn that the greatest -care is taken in cutting and shocking so that the leaves and husks may be saved in the best possible condition. In the South, where hay is always scarce, the leaves are stripped from the stalks, tied in bundles, cured and housed. In this condition they are prized and correctly so, as being fully equal to the best bay. In all the Northern States, where the corn is likely to be injured by frost, no time is lost after the first light frost in immediately cutting and shocking the corn; and the ripening process goes along nearly as well if the corn has passed the milky state as though it were standing on its own roots.' Throughout the great corn-zone of the West it is not unusual when other rough fodder is plenty to cut the corn. It is either taken from the stalk with the husk adhering to be fed to stock thus, or husked directly from the hill and immediately cribbed. When forage is scarce the case is different. Then the stalks are shocked and saved to feed in the winter in place of hay, and, if carefully done, the value of an acre of corn-fodder is about equal to an average acre of grass. For milch cows and fattening cattle there is no doubt that, acre for acre, it is fully as valuable as ordinary hay. The present season lias been deficient in hay, and the Western Mural urged in time that every possible means should be used to supplement this scarcity with other forage, one of these mean! being the saving of as much corn fodder as possible. If not already done no time should be lost in doing it. * It will pay to offer extra inducements to hands during the cutting season to use every exertion not only to put together as much as possible, but also to shock it most carefully and thoroughly. The most easy and secure method we have ever found is to bend and tie four hills together at regular intervals, around which to set the shock; to make the shocks as large as possible, setting the stalks straight and firm, and tie securely and firmly as near the top as it is possible to do and securp all the fodder. Thus made, while there is no danger of the corn being blown down, the most thorough ventilation is secured. There will be a minimum of danger of the fodder being injured by the weather. The brace hills are easily cut when the shocks are moved, and if low-wheeled wagons are employed for hauling to the foddering .yard the shocks are easily loaded by two men with a proper carrying stick. This stick is made from a two-inch hard-wood, planky six feet long, six inches wide at one end and tapering to a point at the other. The shock having been, loosened, the is thrust through at a proper height, turned flatwise, the shock dragged to the wagon and lifted up, the map on the wagon seizing the top, while, the stick being - withdrawn, the men on the ground push the shock to its place. Until the load gets ftigli, no difficulty will be experienced in lifting directly to the place, the tops overlapping each other and the butts outward. If the corn is to be cribbed and the forage fed to stock cattle and milch cows, it is better, if possible, to husk it in the field and pile the fodder securely until Wanted, for the expense of handling such heavy fodder is considerable. When handled, it should be stacked so conconvenient to the feeding place that it may be easily dragged thence by hand or thrown on a wagon and distributed while the team moves slowly oyer the yard. The principal objection to shocking corn in the West is the added expense in husking. A hand will husk fully twice the number of bushels of corn from the hill that he will from the shock. This, first and last, has given rise to,much controversy as to the amount of bushels a

hand could husk in a We have seen 100 bushels of corn (not ears) husked from the hill between sun and sun in October. We have never seen more than forty bushels husked from the shook in the same time. So, in figuring the amount of corn to be shocked for fodder, it would be perfectly safe to gather no more than will be wanted for use. unless the corn must be cut to save it from the frost; for doubling the expense of husking adds very materially to the cost of the corn crop, and the stalks remaining on the field are nowadays but a slight impediment to the subsequent plowing of the land.— Western Rural.