THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



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friends, for advocatiog the extensive use of straw ; but they had 

 rereiitly had science to guide them on that point, and if tliey 

 read carefully Mr. Horsfall's vuliiahle papers in the Royal 

 Agricultural Society's Jourml tlicy would there find that 

 every lOOlijs. of straw contained 301b3. of gum, sugar, and 

 starch, which was erjuivaleat to ISlbs. of oil (laughter). There- 

 fore they need not wonder that straw properly prepared was 

 the right article to put fat ou animals (renewed laughter). He 

 was not surprised to hear getitlenieu laughing at that, as it 

 was so much opposed to their preconceived notiotis ; but he 

 hoped they would be governed by facts aud by science. There 

 was no doubt about the matter; there was in fact ISlbs. of 

 oil iu every lOOlba. of straw. And when lOOlbs. of straw was 

 of so much value, it formed, as a matter of course, the cheapest 

 possible food that they could have to fatten their animals. 

 This was not a mere theoretical question with him. Mr. 

 Bond had spoken of the profitableness of raising young stock 

 on a farm. Now he had reared, in the same manner in which 

 that gentleman proceeded, forty calves, and, instead of paying 

 £2 a piece for them, he paid only SOa. They came out of 

 Buckinghamshire. He raised them on boards ; they had 

 nothing scarcely but steamed cut straw in very large quan- 

 tities, with a certain proportion of rapecake and a few roots, 

 aud in two years and a half they were sold as fat bullocks. 

 Those forty animals were succeeded by fifty others, with re- 

 gard to which the same round of treatment was pursued, and 

 in two years aud a half thej' also went out fat buUncks. He 

 repeated, therefore, that with him this was not a mere ques- 

 tion of theory. At one period, owing to some alterations in 

 his buildings, he ceased to use such a large quantity of straw, 

 and the moment that occurred he found that he was keeping 

 his stock with less advantage. For a time he used large 

 quantities of cake, but that proved comparatively unprofitable. 

 He had since returned to his former system, being convinced 

 by the science of Mr. Horsfall, which he found in the admira- 

 ble papers to which he had referred, that bj' giving straw in a 

 prepared state you were sure to make an animal thrive. He 

 had a number of bullocks now feeding on that system. They 

 had as much wheat-straw cut up and steamed as they liked : 

 together with that they had three and a-half pounds of rape- 

 cake, and three quarters of a pound of malt ; and they had, 

 further, probably, about thirty pounds of roots per day. He 

 concluded, therefore, that straw was too valuable to be trodden 

 under foot; and Mr. Horsfall had shown by large practice, as 

 well as by science, that while straw was worth only O3. 4d. a toa 

 to plough into the ground as manure, they could give 35s. a 

 tou for feeding purposes, and make a good profit. These 

 were things which should not be laughed at, but tested (Hear, 

 hear). He agreed with Mr. Bond, that young animals con- 

 verted food better, and yielded a better profit than old ones. 

 With regard to horses, he begged to say that he had given 

 them mangel wurzel for some years ; and he had found that 

 when it v/as mixed with plenty of fine-cut straw, and the 

 temperature of the roots was what it should be, his horses 

 would eat readily from forty to fifty pounds per day. If the 

 dung was in a proper condition, and there was no tendency 

 to scour, mangel-wurzel might be given almost ad lihilum; 

 and he believed that in the spring of the year especially the 

 general condition of the animal was very much improved by 

 its use. He could not admit that Essex farmers were all 

 men of straw only (laughter). The Hutleys, and the 

 Carters, and others whom he might name, were anything 

 but men of straw (Hear, hear). He agreed, however, with 

 Mr. Bond that a great change was required in the character 

 of the buildings. Moreover, the land must be drained. On 

 this point, he was happy to find that many persons had 

 lately adopted the opinions which he expressed fifteen years 

 ago ; and as they were now working in the right direction, 

 and had begun draining at great depths on their stiff reten- 

 tive soils, he hoped they would make the amende Jionourable 

 to him when the proper time arrived (laughter). He be- 

 lieved that good covered buildings were essential on stiff 

 clays ; and he hoped that landlords would be found ready 

 to erect them, and tenants to pay a reasonable addition to 

 the rental — supposing that not to be too high at present — 

 on account of their erection. He felt quite sure that it was 

 not desirable, as regarded profit, to give a large quantity of 

 rich food to animals. He knew that Mr. Hudson, of Castle- 

 acre, had given as much as forty pounds per day, looking 

 for a return in his wheat; but it was que'^tionable whether 



it would not be better to diffuse the manure by means of a 

 larger number of animals.* 



Mr. J. C. NEsniT (Kennington) said no one present — 

 whether he was practically engaged in agriculture, or engaged 

 in studying the practice of agriculture — could have listened 

 to Air. Bond's introduction without being convinced that he 

 had well studied the various ]ioints which he brought before 

 them (Hear, hear). He would just refer to one or two of 

 those points on which he most entirely concurred with that 

 gentleman. In the first plate, he spoke of the impossibility 

 of getting profit out of the food without having regard to the 

 amount of manure. Now it would, perhaps, be in the re- 

 collection of some gentlemen present that some years ago, 

 while speaking in that very room on this subject, he advo- 

 cated the use of food in such a manner that the stock them- 

 selves should pay for what they consumed, and the manure 

 be, as it were, given to the farm. He then said in effect 

 what Lord Berners had said that evening, namely, that 

 from twelve to fourteen pounds of oilcake per day for a beast 

 was too much ; and Mr. Mechi would perhaps recollect his 

 saying also that if he would undertake to feed a certain 

 number of animals, some on three pounds of oilcake a day, 

 some on six pounds, some on nine pounds, and some on 

 twelve pounds, and keep some of the dung which passed 

 through the animals so fed, he would undertake to tell him 

 how much of the oilcake had passed through the animals 

 undigested. It was eight or ten'years ago since he made 

 that offer; and as the point had not yet been decided, he 

 begged now to renew it, without limiting it to Mr. Mechi. 

 The assimilating powers of animals depended very muchou 

 the time which they had for digesting their food. It was 

 useless to give an animal a larger amount of food than it 

 could digest within the time allowed. The great point was 

 to give animals that quantity of food which was best suited 

 to their condition and to the climate and the state of the at- 

 mosphere; it was only by observing these conditions that 

 they could properly regulate the amount of food. With re- 

 spect to straw, the chief use of it was to assist in the diges- 

 ion of other food. If they gave animals oilcake or mangel- 

 wurzel, or any other watery kind of food, without sufficient 

 admixture of woody fibre, it would be impossible for them to 

 digest it. Hence arose the value of chaff", straw, and any 

 other kind of woody fibre. As regarded Mr. Mechi'saccoimt 

 of the enormous value of straw, he had nnt read the paper 

 to which that gentleman referred [Mr. IVIechi : "I wish you 

 would"] ; but he apprehended that if he did so he should 

 learn from it that Mr. Mechi had somewhat mistaken the 

 author's meaning. Oilcake was sold at from £10 

 to £12 per ton ; he had found, in hundreds of 

 analyses, that from 10 to 12 per cent, was the maximum of 

 oil which it contained ; and, that being the case, he thought 

 that straw, which could be bought even in London at 

 about 2os. a load, could hardly contain 15 per cent, of oil 

 (Hear, hear). [Mr. Mechi: "Do you know how much 

 it does contain.*"] He apprehended that 2 per cent, or 

 even 1 per cent., was the utmost amount that could be pre- 

 dicated of it (Hear, hear). The chief use of straw was, as 

 he had intimated, that it enabled them to use a large 

 quantity of more nutritious food with advantage He did 

 not deny that there was a certain amount of nutriment in 

 straw, but as to its containing the proportion of oil which 

 Mr. Mechi assumed, if Mr. Horsfall or any other gen- 

 tleman asserted that, he would pledge his reputation that it 

 did not. 



Mr. Mechi said this was too important a question to 

 remain in doubt. What he had stated was, that lOOlbs. of 

 straw contained oOlbs. of gum, starch, and sugar ; and that 

 that was equivalent to ISlbs. of oil. It was a chemical 

 question whether that was the case or not (Hear, hear). 



Mr. Nesbit said, then he would assert tliat lOOlbs. of 

 straw did not contain 301bs. of gum, starch, and sugar. 

 No one entertained a more sincere respect for Mr. Mechi 

 than he did, feeling as he did that, by his experiments aud 



* Mr. Mechi since finds in Mr. Horsfall's paper the following— 

 " In wheat straw, for which I pay 35s. per ton, X obtain Jib. of 

 oil, besides 32 lbs. of starch, or (the starch produced as oil) 

 18^ lbs. for Is. 2jd. available for the production of fat, or for 

 respiration. I know no other material from which I can derive, 

 by purchase, an equal amount of this element of food at so low 

 a price." 



