Food. ,333 



and the same number of oxen, with steamed chaff, (vix. cut straw) 

 and some little hay. They are in very hig^h condition, \vhi<h I 

 attribute to the warm food. The quantity of fuel used is but trifling. 

 Very few of my milch cows that are not fit for the butcher, at the 

 same time that the average of milk will be between twelve and 

 thirteen quarts, upon three hundred and twenty days. This phm 

 of feeding* is certainly making its way ; and I do not complain when; 

 I consider, (hat it took Mr. Coke twelve years, to establish the drill- 

 ing of grain in Norfolk." 



1 have made this extract from Mr. Curvren's Letter, for the sake of 

 remarking upon two points of it, which seem to me, of the utmost im- 

 portance. The first which I shall notice is, the satisfactory and singular 

 coincidence in opinion which appears between this observant, intelligent 

 Agriculturist, andsome eminent philosophers, as to the indigestible na- 

 ture of the husk of grain, which, he very properly advises, should be 

 distinguished from cut straw, both being occasionally called chaiT. The 

 second important point contained in this letter, is, the fact respecting 

 eighty head of cattle being kept in very high condition upon steamed cut 

 straw, and only a little hay ; insomuch that the milch cows gave on ati 

 average between twelve and thirteen quarts of miik daily, upon 

 three hundred and twenty days in the year, at the same time that 

 most of them were fit for the butcher. Now let us see how these 

 irrefragable facts, which we may observe apply to the case of 

 working Horses as well as cattle, can be made square with the hypo- 

 thesis of the autliOr of the philosophical treati.se on Horses; who 

 says, page 86; '' Of cut straw I have no opinion as being void of 

 nourishment, and I think the straw of greater use under the feet of 

 the Horse, than in his belly. Hulls or chaff are much better," 



4N 



