EXPERIENCE DEPARTMENT
' How Do YvU Store Your 'Winter Feed?
What Does Shredding Coat?
1st Premium.—The majority cf farmers
should be able to answer the first question In just four words,"ln barn and crib,"
but I am afraid the snows of January and
even the thaws of February will find
many a shook of corn that has become so
tired standing that it has lain down to
rest.
With tbe exception of corn the crops
are about all harvested now and stored
away for winter. A few tons of the very
best bright hay in the bottom of the hay
mow Is reserved for the -work horses
next spring and early summer. They
will be fed mostly on corn hay In the
way of roughness this winter. The milk
oows and young cattle will be fed corn
hay with occasionally a feed of nice
clover for a change.
The only satisfactory way I have found
to keep sheaf oats is to ran It through the
cutting box in early fall and pile up in
some convenient corner in the barn, leaving the top always open to light, and rats
and mice will not injareit at all.
I have never had a husker and shredder
for my own oorn, having husked by hand,
binding the fodder in small bundles, re-
shocking and afterwards hauling in and
outting up with a good power cutter and
gasoline engine. But I have worked
about the machines enough to know their
workings and expect to use one on my
oorn very soon. The traveling machines
about here oharge five cents per bushel
for the corn husked, the farmer furnishing hands and teams to take care of the
oorn and fodder. The oorn elevator will
drop the husked corn Into a wagon, so
one man and team and two wagons will
crib the corn. The fodder can be elevated
some twenty feet and two men will care
for It in the mow. If the machine is not
more than half a mile from the far side
of the corn field, two men and teams and
three wagons will deliver to the maohlne,
with one man in field to help load wagons
and one man to unload wagon at the
machine. The machine will husk about
250 to 300 bushels in a day, so I oan figure
the cost about like this:
275 busheh@5 cents, $13 75.
7 handi @S0 cents, 560.
Total, $19 35.
A little more than seven cents a bushel
I have the teams and can borrow extra
wagons. Counting board for the three
men and four horses that generally accompany the machine,it would make the
cost amount to seven and one-half cents
a bushel.
Experience and observation have
taught me a few things about corn fodder
that I think' are of vital importance in
getting it stored to keep properly. It
must be dry, very dry, when cut up or
shredded, and must not be tramped in the
mow or pile, wherever it is put. One
thing I am not quite certain about, but I
have yet to see the cut or shredded fodder
that will not mold and spoil In bulk if
the corn was much frosted before cut in
the field. Two years ago I cut up 26 wagon loads of what I thought was very nice
dry fodder, and about half of it molded
bo that it was fit for nothing but bedding,
and by tbe way it is par excellence for
bedding. If one has a good oheap power,
as a wind mill or a gasoline engine, I
think it would pay to cut fodder for bedding milk cows, if one had no other use
for it. It is a good absorbent and is nice
to handle with the fork, and carries no
weed seed. G E. H.
Washington Co.
2d Premium. We have already stored
the greater part of our winter feed in the
form of olover, hay and oorn silage. We
have, however, about 400 shocks of oorn
fodder whioh we Intend to run through a
husker as scon as it is dry enough to
store, which will be about Nov. 15th. We
run the cut fodder into the barn or shed
mow. We prefer cutting Into half lnoh
lengths rather than shredding, as we
would rather feed it with baskets than
with forks. The cost of outting is neither
more nor less than shredding. The oost
of either per acre depends of course upon
the heaviness of yield. Taking, as a
basis, a oorn crop that will yield 50 bushels per acre, and we find that an eight
roller husker will cut and husk from 150
to 175 shocks, 12 hills square, or seven to
eight aores per day. That it takes four
men and teams to haul fodder to the machine, one man and team to crib husk6d
corn, three men In the field and two In
the mow. That the usual charge in this
vicinity for husking and cutting such
shocks is 8 cents per shook. This makes
the estimated cost of an average day's
cutting, or seven to eight aores, as follows : Five men and teams at $2 per day
$10; five men at $1 per day, $5; 150 to 175
shocks corn at 8o per shook, $12 to $14;
total oost, $27 to $29. This, if you should
hire all work done. Of course if work is
exchanged with neighbors as is done in
this neighborhood, the aotual cash outlay
is not quite half the above figures. However the actual cost is, with us, about as
stated. O. P. Macy.
Morgan Co.
31 Premium.—With a barn pretty well
filled with clover hay and 20 acres of corn
out up, we are in fairly good shape for
our winter feed. .Last season eight of us
neighbors bought a fodder cutter and
shucker. This is the cheapest way to out
or shred fodder and I would not tarn my
hand over for the difference in out or
shredded fodder. We cut in our oounty
3,500 shocks, and we worked all winter
helping our neighbors out corn. Counting our time and everything it cost us
about ilA oents a shock to get our fodder
in the barn and our oorn in the orib, but
this would not be so bad if our fodder
had not about one-third of it spoiled. It
was too dusty for anything. We have tried
cutting in a cutting box run with horse
power, and sold the machine some time
ago, and are ready to sell our Interest in
the company maohlne. It does fairly
well for bedding, but do not think it is
the way to handle fodder, as the weather
is too unoertain. It takes almost a threshing gang to run it. If there is the least
bit of dampness it will mold, and fodder
is very susceptible to dampness. Any
way it probably would not do to put more
than 150 to 200 shocks In bulk, but with
400 or 500 it is not a success. We are aiming to handle our fodder, from now on, the
old way, shuck and tie in bundles and
haul out on bluegrass pasture while
the weather is fit. When it is
too wet we will feed hay in
racks or manger to our cattle and sheep.
By shucking a lot of oorn before we out
up the fodder and feeding the corn to
hogs, we will with one-half of the time
that we put in last winter shuck all of
our fodder, and the stock will eat very
near, as muoh as when it is out or shredded. Some will say that time is not muoh
of an item this time of the year, but we
are the busiest from now of any time of
the year. Fodder handled right may be
the best and oheapest feed we have. But
vice versa it may be the most expensive.
Grant Co. Lin Wilson.  -
Oar winter's feed is about half in the
mow. We have about 20 acres of cut-up
corn stored in our barn without any rain
since it was cut; but we can't say that of
the rest of it, for on the 19th of October
about five inohes of rain fell here, and it
will be several days before we can work
in the ground.
We planted  Stowell's  evergreen last
spring to make ensilage for the cows this
winter.  Although it is a tiresome job to
out It by hand it makes a good feed.
1   We pnll the coin off in the field and
store it in the orib, and staok the fodder
in layers in the barn, so it oan be got to
feed handy.
As a rule machine men around here
have about four cents per bushel for
shredding and shuoking oorn. The
shredder splits the fodder in fine strings,
and it can be handled as easily as hay
and can bo stored very olosely in the
mow. Where a shredder can be had at
the right time I think it is the best way
to care for cornfodder.
Some people claim that cut fodder is
not good for stock, but we have been
feeding It to our oows for two or three
winters without any ssrious results. I
would prefer the shredder every time.
Cory don. Ij L
Have hay in barn ready for feeding,
also have about 20 acres of cat up corn
fodder in the barn. I took the corn off of
a part of it and the rest of it we stored
away with corn on it I think that fodder is worth twice as much got in early
as if It is left out and takes all the fall
rains and winter's snow. As to shredding, I never had any shredded, but
think it would be handy to feed. A few
miles from where I live the shredder has
worked with success, but there has never
been one in our neighborhood. I don't
just know what shredding costs but do
not think it very expensive. Corn fodder run through a cutting box and mixed
with bran makes splendid cow feed.
Harrison Co. L J.
„       REVIEW.
Mr. Wilson surprises me a little. Because while it is well established that it
don't pay to own a shucker to shuck for
others, as one buys a threshing maohine
or clover huller, yot there are many farm
machines that can't be run that way, as
the binder, drill, mower, etc I have visited numbers of men who have used
huskers and fed shredded fodder, and
Mr. Wilson is the first to say that it don't
pay the farmer when he is a stock holder
with other farmers and trades wrrk. If
Mr. W. shucks and feeds the "old way"
he will probably do much of it himself
and not oount full cost. I should like a
talk with him and see if It hasn't been
unusually bad weather conditions, or
other causes not common that have disgusted him.
I visited Austin Roberts near Westfield
the other day, and we went into his
uncle's barn and looked at a mow containing 35 acres of out fodder. It looked
awful hioe. They have used the shucker
two years before this and changed the
shredder for a cutter head. Austin was
quite enthusiastic, but when I asked him
i{, they could come down and cut 600
snooks for me he said: ''Well, we have
a lot to shuck around here, and it don't
pay to take the maohine four or five
miles to shuck. We don't aim to do any
work outside of our gang of help. We
who own the think shuck for enough
neighbors to pay for help in shucking
our own. So the machine Just about puts
away our feed. Managed that way it
makes a lot of the finest and cheapest
feed on earth; saving feed you have already grown. But if a man hires the machine at say $2 an acre and all his help it
is very expensive feed."
I came home and tried to arrange to
buv a shucker and every maohine around
here wanted to sell to me. But I noticed
that the one owned by a farmer was too
small and tedious which caused him to
want to part with it. And the others
were owned by threshing men who aimed
to use it as a wheat thresher. AH my
neighbors who talked about it wanted
me to shuok their fodder if I bought one,
but didn't want a share in ownership.
This simply proves that the weather
oondltions In November and December
are so changeable and the days so short
that a few farmers must own the
shucker and use it during pretty weather,
jast as we do our cutting boxes, and help
each other.
Mr. Wilson is all right in speaking of
fllckerty weather, when engines will
freeze and burst piposand must be blown
out every shower followed by sharp
frost. Tis true that the nights frost
don't melt off till 9 o'clook and the moisture don't dry eft till noon. But sometimes there is no dew and we can shuck
a week or two at a stretch.
Two years ago when these maohines
sold like hot cakes at the fair it was a
very unfortunate year. Corn was held
baok by drouth and matured late by fall
rains and was very sappy. The fall being damp it never did cure, and when
cut in piles rotted. This gave machines
and their work a black eye. The owners
carried a big debt and couldn't make a
dollir to pay it with.
Last week a friend and I wore in Indianapolis two days looking to buy a husker. There were several fine large looking machines waiting. They were undoubtedly good shuokers, but the price
was $450 to $500,and there was not another
man looking after them. There was
praotically no inquiry, right in the season and the finest weather that ever
blowed.
If suoh maohines could sell for $250 to
$300 (and they will some day) so two or
three farmers oan afford to put money In
th6m they will again find a large sale.
Mr. Hopkins thinks frosted fodder will
heat. This is probably due to the faot it
was quite green when killed and didn't
ripen up. The blades are the proper
ohannel for moisture to cure out of the
stalk, and such fodder needs more time
to cure.
Austin Roberts says that if the sap is
once thoroughly cured he don't fear considerable outside moisture. Abel Doan
says he oan't tell the difference of damage to fodder or hay from outside and inside moisture.
Last week fodder was so brittle that it
fed badly, a"d they drove the tank
through the field and pumped water into
the Bhocks a day ahead.
One neighbor said he fed fodder corn in
long, deep mangers last winter to cattle,
and made the cheapest beef he eyer fed.
He had, however, heretofore fed around
straw staoks.
I was in two large barns this week
where dairy cows are kept, and they
were both feeding freshly shredded fodder. The mangers were left full and the
coarser part was used for bedding. I was
surprised that a larger per cent of it was
not eaten. They explained that they
push their cows and have lots of feed,
that stock oattle would eat it much
cleaner and do well.
I may have mentioned the home of B.
F. Johnson near Mooresvllle. He showed
me shredded fodder from last year, and
said he had worked his "pore" old horses
all summer on it and grain, and that it
was equal to timothy hay. His "pore
ole" horses were fat.
If I had a shredder I'd use use it to fill
a silo, and later to shuck my fodder.
As made, most shusking machines are
defective. First, In the carrier being too
short. It should throw the feed in at the
gable so that It would be lowered to
spread instead of lifted.
Second, they should soreen out all
shelled eorn, because If your feed molds
it is always where broken oorn has collected. The staroh starts the ferment
more quickly than the straw. Cattle will
work down through it to the very bottom
of the manger after grain, and often muss
it over or throw muoh of it out. -
Third, if possible they should be so
modified as to be more easily fed. Feeders nearly all complain that they can
hardly get the fodder in, and often turn a
big butted stalk the small end first.
This makes much greater danger of accidents, since if one is  pushing hard fito-
Cttetuded «m 9th tHspe.