344 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



claim they can buy oil meal exported from this country and feed it to their 

 stock for the increased value of the manure. We, as farmers, by preserving 

 our straw bright and sweet, can feed it with a little more grain than if feeding 

 hay, and convert it all into rich manure. If we have not sufficient stock to work 

 up all of the straw, we can afford to purchase more. One of our best practical 

 farmers, who feeds a large number of sheep each year, says that he shall con- 

 tinue to feed sheep as long as the manure made costs him no more than the 

 labor of feeding them ; he asks for no other profit, but thinks he is seldom 

 obliged to content himself with that amount. 



We commence cutting our wheat as early as it will answer — quite green. 



Prof. Kedzie is authority that it can be cut much earlier with profit than is 



generally supposed. We found this season ours cut first and threshed from the 



shock overran three pounds per bushel, while that cut later, stacked and 



threshed after seeding, just held out; it was all secured before the rains. The 



straw is much more valuable when cut early. Hay and straw are practically 



almost the same crop but cut at different stages of growth ; straw is cut late 



when much of its nutritive value has passed into the seed. When grass is cut 



very late or exposed to rains we find our early cut straw preserved in good 



order fully equal to the hay ; analysis and experiments prove this assertion to 



be correct. We generally seed down all of our wheat to timothy about the 



middle of October, sowing clover seed in the spring ; then a good deal of the 



timothy heads out and is cut with the wheat, increasing the value of the straw 



as a fodder. Wheat, when sown broadcast and thick, is more valuable for its 



straw, as it is finer and more leaves being less exposed to the light and air. 



We try to shock and stack our wheat securely to better preserve the grain and 



straw, drawing all the straw to the barns in the bundle, believing that it can 



be done then cheaper than in the winter. When threshed we try and have it 



properly stacked, frequently paying a good stacker one dollar per day extra 



and furnishing plenty of good help to assist — not all boys — on the straw stack. 



Whenever a stack is to be placed at the barns where stock can have access to 



it, we build a straight rail fence and have the straw stacked inside of it, as 



cattle waste a great deal when allowed to run to the stack, and sheep get their 



wool full of chaff, which injures the sale of it. We feed straw to our sheep 



by carrying and placing it in racks, and think the sheep are best adapted to 



feed straw to, as by their small lips and pointed mouths they can better pick 



out the wheat heads, chaff, leaves, and finer portions of the straw which are 



twice as valuable as the coarser parts ; when sufficient is placed before them 



they only pick out tbe best, which is nearly equal to hay. When straw is 



scarce as it was a year ago, it is a good plan to place it before them in large 



quantities, allowing them to pick it over, then using what is left for bedding. 



We feed some straw to the horses in the winter when not working much ; also 



feed our cattle straw with good results, adding more grain than if feeding hay, 



and think it cheaper; we thus increase the quantity and value of the manure. 



We use straw in sufficient amount for bedding to keep stock clean and absorb 



as much of the liquid manure as possible. It has been found by experiments 



that about one-half of the straw is digestible, including crude fibre ; but it is 



best digested by the ruminants. Straw which has rusted or mildewed is unfit 



for fodder. Straw grown upon rich, well manured land is more valuable as a 



fodder. 



We have had but little experience in plowing under dry straw ; our best 

 results have been obtained in heavy soils in a wet season ; think it makes the 

 soil more open and porous; coarse manure would have given better results; 



