cases with a stalk of maize. After the plant has become cured, which usually takes about a month, the shocks are generally

Maize cutter. Blade on each side severs

husked by hand in the field, the stover tied into bundles; the four hills which had been used for supports are cut off and bound with the rest of the stover. These bundles are

stalks while men riding upon the machine again shocked and the shocks

gather them together and shock them. Two rows may be cut at one time, or, raising one blade, only one row.

tied, or the stover is hauled directly to the barn and stored.

It is necessary to choose suitable weather conditions, since if the plants are too dry, the leaves will fall off and be lost, while extremely wet weather would be equally injurious.

Methods of cutting maize by hand. A, wooden horse used to support stalks while shock is being built; B, four hills used as support for shock when wooden horse is not used; C, rope with hook for drawing shock together prior to tying with string shown at Al; D, maize knife used in North Central States; E, maize knife used in North Atlantic States

The husker and shredder, which has now come into considerable use, eliminates the labor of husking and puts the stover in a condition to be easily handled. It may be stored in the barn or even put into a stack, but in order to keep, the stover must be thoroughly dry at the time of husking. Itinerant machines go from farm to farm in many localities husking either by the day or at a fixed price per bushel. Threshing machines have sometimes been used for threshing maize fodder. The chief objection to the threshing machine is that it shells the grain, which at that time usually contains too much moisture to be stored in this manner.

Where beef cattle are fattened, the maize fodder, generally called "shocked corn," is fed without being husked, thus supplying concentrated food and roughage at the same time.

343. Topping.-Removing that part of the culm or stalk above the ears instead of cutting and shocking the whole plant has been somewhat widely practiced in both the North and South Atlantic States.

The Pennsylvania Station1 found that by topping, 1,050 pounds of stover were obtained at a loss of 540 pounds of ear maize, as compared with allowing the maize to ripen and merely gathering ears. Mississippi Station,2 as the result of three years' trials, found a net loss in feeding value of more than twenty per cent. Seven other stations show an average loss of thirteen bushels per acre, which was "more than the feeding value of the 'fodder' secured." At the Arkansas Station, neither topping nor pulling reduced the yield of grain so much as cutting and shocking the whole plant when ears were just past the roasting-ear stage, as shown in the following table:

1 Penn. Rpt. 1891, pp. 58-60. 2 Miss. Bul. 33 (1895), p. 63. 8 Ark. Bul. 24 (1893), p. 121.

344. Pulling.-Throughout the Southern States there is a tendency for the leaves of maize to dry up before the ears are mature, and it has been the custom to strip the leaves from the culms while they are still green and the ears immature.

"Fodder pulling is effected according to latitude and season from the first of August to the middle or even the last of September. When the operator's hands are full of blades and he can hold no more, the quantity is termed a 'hand,' and is bound rapidly with a twist and hung on a broken stalk to cure. On gathering a day or so later, from three to four hands form a 'bundle,' which is, also, bound with a few twisted blades. The bundle weighs from one and three-fourths to two pounds and forms the staple 'roughage' of southern draft stock." 1

At least eight stations in the Southern States have investigated the influence of this practice on the yield of grain, and in general report a decrease of from ten to twenty per cent. The earlier the work was done, the greater the loss. Redding concludes that "pulling fodder" is only expedient under the most favorable circumstances, but where it is resolved to do so, the best practice is to strip the blades, from and including the earblade, downward, at about the usual time of pulling, and in a week or ten days to cut off stalks above the ear. Besides adding

largely to yield of stover, it is believed to be more expeditious.

3

The Florida Station 3 reports that "pulling fodder" has the effect of loosening the husks on the ear before the grains become hard, thus promoting the ravages of the weevil.

1 The Book of Corn, p. 169.

2 Ga. Bul. 23 (1893), pp. 81-82.

3 Fla. Bul. 16 (1892), p. 8.

345. Silage.-Probably the most important change that has been made in the handling of the maize plant in the last quarter of a century is the practice of putting the unripened plant cut into small pieces by a feed cutter into a receptacle with air-tight sides and bottom, called a silo. The essential value of this process, aside from economical farm management, lies in the greater palatability of silage as compared with maize fodder. Experiments show the digestibility of silage and maize fodder to be about equal when all other conditions except method of preserving remain the same. A large number of American feeding experiments, mostly with milch cows, show, in general, about equal food value for amount of dry matter consumed, but that ordinarily there is less waste in the consumption of silage, thus adding to the total returns per acre, and that a rather higher rate of feeding can be maintained with silage, thus adding to the daily production of butter fat.

346. The Silo.-A silo should have air-tight bottom and sides and should be constructed in such a manner and of such materials as to be durable, protect the silage from freezing, and afford ventilation. Its sides should

be perpendicular, rigid, with inner surface smooth. The efficiency of the silo will depend, also, upon its size and shape. The more compact the silage, the better it keeps. The greater its diameter and the more nearly circular the silo, the less the resistance of the sides to packing. The deeper the silo, the more compact the silage, and the less the surface exposure in proportion to the whole mass. A silo should never be less than twenty-four feet deep, thirty feet is very much better, and forty feet is desirable where practicable and the capacity desired

A modern stave sijo

warrants it. The surface area of the silo should be such that the silage will be fed rapidly enough to prevent decay. It should never be more than ten square feet per cow, five is better; while seven and a half gives good results.

The riper the silage, the less weight the silo will hold. The higher the silo and the greater the diameter, the more weight the silo will hold. The weight and keeping quality will depend also upon the manner of filling. The material should be evenly distributed and the silage next the sides of the silo thoroughly packed by tramping in order to overcome resistance offered by the sides. The more slowly the silo is filled, the more it will hold. A silo sixteen feet in diameter and thirty feet high will hold, when continuously filled with suitably ripened maize, about thirty-three and a third pounds of silage per cubic foot, or about 100 tons of silage. A cubic foot of such silage is a standard daily ration for a cow in milk. The capacity of the silo required may be calculated in cubic feet by multiplying the number of animals to be fed by the days of feeding desired. Twelve tons of suitably ripened maize per acre is a good yield; eight to ten tons per acre is a safer estimate when calculating the land to be planted in order to fill the silo.

347. Losses in the Silo.-Babcock and Russell1 have shown that the changes which take place in the silage are not wholly due to bacteria, but partly, at least, to the respiratory activity of the yet living protoplasm of the plant tissue. The loss due to respiratory activity was shown to amount to about one per cent of the total weight of the silage, and was due to the carbonic acid (CO2) gas evolved. King has shown that the unavoidable losses may amount to from two to four per cent. These are the losses in feeding value which cannot be prevented with a silo of the very best construction, filled in the best possible The losses not due to respiratory activity are due to

manner.

1 Wis. Rpt. 1901, pp. 177-184. 8 Wis. Bul. 83 (1900), p. 64.