As the weather has finally turned a little cooler I am reminded of my father (who grew up west of Delmar) talking about how he use to hate to pull fodder growing up. Sometime between September to December farm people would go to the corn fields and first cut the top of the stalk off down to the corn ears, bundle the tops and leave out in the field to dry. Second they would strip the leaves from the corn stalk (pulling fodder) bundle them and let dry. Third, they would pull the corn and put it in the corn crib. The tops and the leaves would be fed to the livestock as fodder through out the winter.
above painting by Arie Reinhart Taylor of pulling fodder.
In the winter a horse or mule was fed 6 to 8 ears of corn and a bundle of maybe 40 corn stalk leaves.
Was they feed this once or twice a day?
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