Gallipolis Journal

Corn For Fodder.

At the North, corn may be sown for fodder at any time, from the usual corn-planting season until the middle or end of June, the only requirement being to allow time for the fodder to mature sufficiently, which is usually indicated by the edges of the leaves beginning to become dry. Northern corn might doubtless be sown in North Carolina as late as August, but the larger Southern sorts, which grow longer, should be sown earlier. If the soil is dry, it must be planted deeper. We have been in the practice of sowing it for fodder for more than twenty years, and find no mode better than to plow and harrow the ground; furrow it out three or four feet apart, strew the corn along the furrows by hand from a basket, at the rate of three bushels per acre, and harrow it in. It is afterwards cultivated two or three times by horse. Cut with a scythe or corn cutter, bind, and set up in large even shocks, and allow it either to remain till wanted, or else stack it in small stacks, with three rails set upright in the middle, half a foot or more apart, to make a chimney for the escape of the hot air of fermentation. Stacked in the common way, it will heat and spoil. It is one of the best substitutes for hay, and is much cheaper than hay at $10 per ton.—Country Gentleman.