V,'-.'
TIMELY FARM AND GARDEN WORK Pages 3 and 4.
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Atm and Home Weekly for the Carolinas, Virginia,
iz -vjeorcia ana 1 ennessee.
FOUNDED, 1886, AT RALEIGH, N. C.
Vol. XXVII. No. 31.
SATURDAY, AUuvT 3, 1912.
I - ...M .1 i mi 3 40 A) . ..
Weekly : $1 a Year.
V
ECONOMICAL HARVESTING OF THE CORN CROP
THAT we do not grow corn for
the grain or ears alone is evi
A 1 1 iA O i. A.
ucutcu uy lucouuiuem system
of fodder-pulling and the practice,
gradually becoming more common,
of cutting and shocking the entire
plant. The chemists have told us
that there is about the same feed
nutrients in the stalks and leaves as
in the grain, and the livestock testify
that these stalks and leaves are of
value in practical feeding. Unless
the stalks and leaves are put; in the
"silo and preserved in .succulent con
dition, the value rwiiich a . chemical
analysis gives the different parts of
the corn plant is not realized by the
livestock. Perhaps under the best
methods of dry-curing of the stover
and shredding or cutting the stalks
and leaves to reduce the waste to a
minimum not over half as much feed
value is obtained from the stalks and
leaves as from the ears, of an aver
age crop.
Where rough feed is abundant
and cheap there may be some doubt
as to its paying to cut and shock the
corn crop, but wherever rough for
age is scarce or high-priced, as is the
case in the South almost every year,
there can be no doubt that it pays to
harvest the entire crop for feed.
The crop is now harvested in one
of four different ways:
1. Either the leaves or tops, or
both, are pulled or cut while the
plant is green.
2. The ears only are removed after the plant is fully matured
and dry.
3. The plant is cut when the corn is hard but before the stalk
and leaves become fully dry and shocked, later being shucked by
hand or by husker and shredder.
4. The entire plant when mature, but not fully dry, is cut and
put in a silo
The cutting of the tops or pulling the leaves lessens the yield of
corn if done at the usual time. The work required is about as
great and costs about as much as to harvest the entire crop, and a
considerable part of the feed value of the plant is lost.
Method No. 2 is advisable only when rough forage is abundant
and cheap. By harvesting in this way at least one-third the feed value
of the crop is left in the field to weather and waste. Even when live
stock are allowed to run in the stalk fields the feed value of the stalks
and leaves has been largely lost by weathering, and in wet weather
many soils are injured by the tramping of the livestock.
When feed is needed, and the crop can be harvested by machinery,
the best method of harvesting the corn crop is to cut and shock the
entire plant and utilize all for forage. The chief objections to this
method are trjat it is heavy work and that there is difficulty sometimes
in curing the stover. It is heavy work to cut and shock corn, but it
is no more disagreeable work than pulling fodder, and when done by
machinery is the easiest method of harvesting the full crop. The dif
ficulty experienced in curing the stover in the shocks is chiefly due to
cutting the corn too green and failure to shock and tie properly. To
shock properly and tie one band tight enough and high enough, re
quires some care and practice, but it is entirely practicable to do this.
When dry hard grain is not demanded, there is no way of harvest
ing the corn crop that at all compares with putting it into a silo.
Ip ' P'zi
- &mSi-
A CORN HARVESTER AT WORK-COURTESY INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY.
In short, all that part of the corn crop not put in the silo should
be cut and shocked and the entire plant stover and grain used for
feed. Feed is always scarce, or we buy it and it is high-priced.
Therefore, it will pay to save all forage grown.
The question is simply whether or not there will be sufficient gain
of feed in harvesting the whole crop to pay for the extra expense
over metkods Nos. 1 and 2. We maintain that the extra amount of
feed obtained in this way will be worth from $5 to $10 more per
acre at ruling market prices than that obtained in pulling fodder, or
topping the plants, or by pulling the ears and grazing the stalk fields,
and the extra cost need not exceed $1 to $3 an acre.
FEATURES OF THIS? ISSUE.
A LETTER TO THE GIRL IN HER TEENS Every Girl Should
Read It 7
COLLEGE FARMS ARE NOT RUN FOR MONEY Some Wrong
Ideas Commonly Held 10
FARM AND GARDEN WORK FOR AUGUST By Prof . JVlassey . 4
HOW MUCH COTTONSEED MEAL TO FEED We Do Not Use
This Feed as Liberally as We Should 12
IRISH CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT SOCIETIES The Conclusion of
Mr. Poe's Interesting Letter on This Subject 11
KEEP THE SCHOOL CHILD HEALTHY By Mrs. Stevens 8
LETTERS ABOUT HAYING Hay Forks and Slings, and When to
Sell Hay (i
RAINY-DAY JOBS Some Things to Look After WTien Farm
Work is Not Pressing , 19
VETCH GROWING IN SOUTH CAROLINA now to Handle the
Crop to Advantage : 5