Thursday, July 18, 1907.
THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER.
9
Does Fodder-Pulling Pay?
We are told that the Bard of Avon "never repeats," and to repeat is also against the
policy of The Progressive Farmer. Our Dr. Butler, however, so nearly exhausted his sub
jects in his two articles last yeary "Does Fodder Pulling Pay?" and "The Right Way to
Harvest Corn? that we break our rule for the purpose of bringing his arguments again
to the attention of our farmers. Not twenty thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but
actually millions of dollars have been lost by farmers in our territory by the fodder pulling
folly nd wrong methods of harvesting the corn crop. It is none too early for you to decide
now that for your part at least you will avoid the wasteful methods so generally practiced
and get ready to handle your 1 90 f corn crop rightly. And in this Dr. Butler's articles
this week and next will be Jound invaluable: ,
' - .... f "? ..- A
Prof! Massey's ( ( V
Weekly Letter. W H J
Forty-seven per cent, or nearly half of the cul
tivated land in North Carolina is devoted to corn,
and the last Census gave the total value of the
corn crop in this and adjoining States as $111,
000,000 as against $104,000,000 for cotton. The
corn crop is therefore an important one, and since
it is grown solely for its feed value, the method of
harvesting the crop that will give the greatest
amount of feed, should receive careful considera
tionThe feed value of a plant is ascertained by
a chemical analysis and actual feeding trials,
where both the animals and tne feed are carefully
weighed.
The chemist tells us that the average mature
corn plant cut off near the ground contains about
46 per cent of its feed in the ear, or ears, and
about 54 per cent in its stalk, leaves and shucks,
or as it is generally called, the "stover." 1
But the chemist Cannot tell us exactly the feed
value of any substance, and to complete our infor
mation we must carry this corn plant to the mule
or the steer and ask him the value of its parts as
feed. To obtain a correct answer to such a ques
tion we must feed large numbers of animals or
repeat the trials many times. This has been done,
and the average of the results indicates that the
steer or mule can digest the ear a little better
than he can the stover, and that he gets about 51
per cent of the feed value of the average corn
plant out of the ear and about 49 per. cent out of
the, stover.. If this be true, and it is, then the
stover is a valuable part of, the corn crop, and
careful thought should be given to the question
of harvesting it so as to obtain the greatest possi
ble amount of feed from the entire plant.
, ' ' " .1 . .
We Harvest Corn Too Early. 4 '"'
Experiments at the Iowa Station have shown
that if we wish to harvest the crop at the time
when the greatest feed value in the stover has
been reached, we should cut it when the leaves
begin to dry up, or not later than when one-third
to one-half of the leaves are dry. On the other
" band, these same experiments have shown that
the time when the ears contain their highest feed
value is when all the leaves are dry and the corn
fairly hard, and that to cut the corn before this,
or long after, lessens the feed value obtained in
the ears.
But the time to harvest the corn crop is plain
ly that time when the ears and stover together
contain the maximum of feed value. This time
has been found" to be about midway between the
two periods1 mentioned, or say, ten days after the
jusual "fodder-pulling", time. In other words, at
the usual time for "fodder-pulling" neither the
corn plant, as a whole, nor the ears have reached
their best development in feed value. There are
several ways of harvesting and utilizing the corn
rrnn. and at some other time we shall discuss
some of the others, but in this "article we wish to
pay our respects to the common method of pulling
the fodder before the plant has fully matured and
then gathering the ears at a later . date; How are
we to find out if this venerated Southern custom
of pulling the leaves and cutting off the top of the
7 3 "
stalks pays?
A Test That Tells.
The only way I know by which the question can
be fairly tested is by taking a given area and be
ginning at one side, pull the fodder from every
! alternate row .clear across the field, and leave the
ROTATION FOR A COTTON FARM. No. 2.
Since all the red clay uplands of the Southern
Piedmont are naturally as well adapted to wheat
as the same Cecil clay is in Maryland and Pennsyl
vania, it will follow that a rotation of crops in
the Piedmont section j should include the wheat
crop. Even jin the Eastern coast plain, while the
soil and climate are not the best for wheat, good
crops have been grown1 by good farmers.
But the fact that Governor Holt did . grow over
forty-six bushels of wheat per acre on the red
other rows untouched. Then, when the corn is
ready to harvest, gather that on the rows where
the fodder was pulled and shell and weigh it; and
then gather that on the unpulled rows and shell
and weight that. Repeat this several times and
average the results and you will probably have a
r.orrpct. fltiswpr tn tliA nnpaMnn "What ia V10 f-
.. - " -a , ....v vv v. l, 1 - T 1 .11 11
, , . - . - , . . , , I cecii ciay;oi jersey ret son, snows wen iuo capac-
itrct on tiie yiem 01 sneiiea corn, in weigm, irom it of tho Piedmont I clay, for on similar soil
pulling the leaves from the stalks at the time fod- North, where wheat is the main grain money crop,
der is usually pulled?"
If in addition to this information we also ascer
tain the weight of the "fodder" obtained, we then
have the necessary facts to enable us to determine
whether it pays to pull fodder.
Ordinary Fodder Pulling Decreases Yield Six
Bushels Per Acre.
Fortunately for our purposes, this has been done
many times and in several Southern States. In
these experiments to test the effect of pulling the
fodder on the yield of shelled corn, by weight,
the following results were obtained:
Florida. When the fodder was pulled, 28.2
bushels per acre. When the plant was untouched,
27.3 bushels per acre. Loss by pulling fodder,
3.4 bushels per acre.
Florida. When the fodder was pulled, 28. 2
bushels per acre. When the plant was untouched,
31.1 bushels per acre. Loss, 2.9 bushels per acre.
Mississippi. -(1) When the plant was untouch
ed, 43.5 bushels per acre. (2) When the plant
was topped, 29 bushels per acre. Loss, 14.5 bush
els per acre. (3) When the leaves were stripped,
35.5 bushels per acre. Loss, 8 bushels per acre.
Alabama. Loss in shelled corn by pulling the
fodder, average for two years, four bushels per
acre.
The average loss in all these trials, that is, with
corn ranging from 27.3 to 43.5 bushels per acre,
was six bushels of shelled corn per acre, by weight.
Fodder Pulling is Labor Lost,
The amount of fodder obtained in tbe tests in
Georgia, Florida and Mississippi is also fortunate
ly given, and the average for all of them is 595
pounds of fodder obtained per acre.
Since the feed value of six bushels of corn is
nearly equal to that of 595 pounds of fodder, it
Is, therefore, apparent that if we pay for the fod-
twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre is consid
ered a good crop.
Money Profit in Auxiliary Crops.
And with good farming in the Piedmont section
of North Carolina and South Carolina, crops of
twenty-five bushels per acre should be common.
To tn"e upper Piedmont section of South Carolina
a man came from' the ; North, and was laughed at
for trying to grow wheat where every one else
was devoted to cotton only. His first crop, he
said, wasjsix bushels per acre, but by persevering
in rotation he gradually built up his land, and at
the time he talked with me he said he was mak
ing thirty-five bushels; per acre.
One farmer in the,; upper Piedmont section of
North Carolina, who; had been taking my advice
for some-years in a crop rotation, wrote me that
he had that season made seventy-five bushels of
oats per j acre, and after the oats were cut had
made two tons of cowpea hay per acre on the
same land. As the hay was worth right there
$20 per ton, it with the oats, put him far ahead
of the cotton crop which, was low in price at that
time. j
I mention these instances to show that, while
cotton should always! be the main money crop in
the Cotton Belt, the-good farmer can make tho
auxiliary crops a source of income, and often as
much, or more, than his cotton crop.
Average Corn Yield Should Be Fifty Bushels.
But, says one, ihow, with the scarcity of labor,
are we to handle a wheat crop right in the busy
season of cultivating the cotton and corn? By
economizing in human labor and making mules
and horses, with improved implements, do the
work. By putting a smaller area in cotton and giv
ing it the best chance. There is not a farm in the
Piedmont section of North or South Carolina that
cannot, ;by proper farming with a good rotation
of crops, be made to! produce fifty bushels of corn
per acre, one bale of cotton per acre, and two
tons per acre of pea-vine hay.
. Mariboro County, South Carolina, recently came
to the front in a contest with 182 bushels of corn
per acre in competition with the great corn State
of Iowa where .125; bushels was the limit. In
der we obtain by a loss in corn and lose tbe labor every such contest j jf or many years past South
of pulling the fodder besides, it does not pay to Carolina has carried off the first prize. Some
years ago, at tne A. c m. uoiiege iarm 111 itaieiga.
pull fodder. In fact, although half the feed value
on land that was notoriously poor when the col-
of the corn plant be in the stover, it would paylege started, Mr. Skinner made on a sandy hill-
better to let all of this stover rot in the field than sinnA pi ehtv-eieht bushels of corn per acre. All of
to pull the fodder at the time it is usually done.
Why does this loss in weight of shelled corn oc
cur? Simply because when the leaves are re
moved from the plant all further work or growth
is effectually stopped. The corn may dry up and
get hard, but nothing more is added to the grain.
The leaves of a plant may be likened to the lungs
of an animal, and when you take the leaves off a
corn plant you stop its work about as effectually
as you do wjien you take the lungs out of an ani
mal. Moreover, the fodder is usually pulled a
week or ten days earlier than the proper time for
cutting the corn. Again, when the corn is cut and
shocked, the leaves being left on the plant and
the cut end of the stalk placed on the moist
this goes to show that with, good farming fifty
bushels per acre in all the Piedmont country
should be the average crop.
Rotation Should Be Adapted to Soils.
But right here we get another objection. "
have some good bottom land that grows fair crops
of cornj but is not so well-suited to cotton, while
my up-land is cotton soil." And you go on year
after year, growing corn on that bottom land and
cotton on the up-lands. I have seen this continual
corn culture run down the crops that should be
100 bushels per acre to less than one-fourth of
that amount! i
The fact that your cottom lands are not as well
adapted to cotton as your up-lands is no reason
why the bottoms should always be devoted to one
crop, and is not reason why the up-lands should
ground, the ear is still further developed from the not grow corn as an aid in the production of cot
material already in the plant. ton. One having such a farm should adapt his
Next week we may discuss the harvesting of the rotation to each of the portions,
crop in such manner as to save all the stover and This is the end of my scolding, and in my next
also have something more to say regarding the I will consider how, we are to remedy the defects
feeding value of it. TAIT BUTLER. in our Southern! farminsr. W. F. JMAoorii.