The Fodder Crop

"I have ent cora fodiler and fed it in every possible way since 1877, cutting by haud uutil 1895, but havo now tled ou what I considcr the least labor and the easiest, therefore the most acceptable, to employer aud employed, as follows : First, the use of a corn harvester; second, the use of a shredder attached to good steain power. ' ' These are the opening sentences of a letter to Wallace's Farmer. Following are additioual extracta of general interest concerning last season's erop: "My harvester was bought in 1895, and, with two teams, used alternately. The machine placed in nice bundies for the shocker 140 acres in 17 days. Three men would have done the shocking had the weather been normal. The ehredder was started Oct. 3 and run until Dec. 2, storing nicely 400 acres .of the fiuest iood in my barns and those of my neighbors, all of which cured as well as timothy hay usually is. The corn in the cribs and no sore lingers. I thus housed 175 acres for niyself. The coarser part that the stock reject is used for bedding, which feeders have to buy in this ity. "As to the curing, the fodder mentioned was stored in varioua sized bulks, sonie as large as 42 by 58 by 20 fcet, and, as before mentioned, kept satisfactorily. But I am satisfied that if the oat straw was run iiito one part of the barn when thrasbed and then when the shredding is being done mix straw and fodder together both would be improved and the stock benefited by having both foods all the time. The fodder is fed in tight mangers or racks in the barns direetly from the mow, as much as they will eat up clean, and the rnangers cleaned out before each fresh feed. The fodder is handled with handmade wooden forks, with bolted, crooked handles and staves made from a half barrel ripped into 1 % inch strips, pointed and bolted to cross bars with eight bolts. My fodder of 1894 did not keep as well as 1895 because in the year first mentioned there were plenty of green and growing suckers, which, being immature, did not cure out by shredding time. ' 'As to the cost of this fodder per ton, and not per pound, of corn husked, j the shredder cannot grow the corn in the fodder, but will husk or snap, as desired, as many bushela of corn as the I eight hands that are required, besides j the machine men, would husk if each took his team and went to the field. The cost per ton is simply that of ting and shocking - 70 cents per acre;! : twine, 10 cents; use of the harvester, ' 10 cents; shredding, $1. 75; board of the machine men and coal, 60 cents - a total of $3.25 per acre. Fodder from an acre of corn will average % tons, therefore a ton of shredded fodder costs $2.56. If ono owns the machine, this cost can be reduoed from 50 to 75 cents per tou. The estímate of the cost of the fodder thus becomea $1.75 per ton. 1 have allowed nothing for the use of teams except in cutting, as in shredding time their work will be offset by the work of gathering corn if it was left standing. The value of the shredded foddor is estimated at 80 per cent of that cf tamo hay, whioh on land worth from $45 to $00 per acre must bring $5 per ton, or there is a loss to landlord pr renter. This fodder is therefore worth as stored $4 per ton, and on an average $6 this year. The renter or landowner is thus niaking or saviug $1.75 tor each acre of corn he thus handles, half the rent and all the taxes. Would this course lift the mortgage if the old, ; ruinous way would pay the reut and leave you even? Let us see. "225 tons of fodder $385 00 50 acres of oat straw 100 00 25 acres of cornstalks 13 75 "Oost of my rough food per year, $493.75, or a tri fio over $2 per day tor 240 head of cattle. "Let us now look at the advantages. One advantage is that by sowing part of the cornfields to rye the last time the corn is plowed, whcn the corn is ent, shredded and stored, you havo a pasture worth from 50 cents to $1.50 per acre that will take no more fertility from the soil than a erop of weeds. When the corn ís removed, part of the field can be plowed and thus relieve the spring work, and this late plowing is preferable to spring plowing on account of the conditiou of the ground and the destructiou of insects. My tle on feed for marker, ruy stockers and my horses do as well s when my farm was half hay land. The hay land has been reduced one-third, the pasturo increasod and the corn land largely. Oats reruain the same, and rye has been added. The stock of cattle, especiully iu the winter, has bt-on increased O)iethird."