22O FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



or absent. Straw cut at early maturity is much better rel- 

 ished than when cut late and has less crude fibre. The finer 

 the stems and the more abundant the leaves, the more highly 

 is straw relished. Beards in it are more or less objec- 

 tionable as they sometimes influence mastication adversely, 

 especially when the crop is fully matured, as harshness, so 

 to speak, in the beards, is enhanced by increasing maturity. 

 The methods of curing straw affect it similarly to the way 

 in which methods affect the curing of hay. When straw is 

 overcured and bleached by exposure, live stock do not care 

 to eat it and heavy rains wash out of it soluble nutrients. 

 The feeding value of pea and bean straw may be almost 

 destroyed by such exposure, and to a less degree that of 

 oat straw. Such parasitical diseases as rust may greatly 

 lessen the value of straw. Smut acts similarly and also 

 mildew, which frequently attacks some kinds of leguminous 

 plants. It may not be safe to say that straw thus affected 

 will produce positive troubles in digestion, but it is safe to 

 say that such visitations affect its palatability adverselv in 

 proportion as they are present. 



The composition of straw, as may be expected, differs 

 much with the class, the variety, the soil in which it is 

 grown, the nature of the stand, whether grown alone or in 

 combination, and whether leguminous or otherwise. Rye 

 straw stands lowest in feeding value because of its unpala- 

 table and woody character, unless in the case of speltz. 

 Next in feeding value is wheat straw, based on palatability 

 and nutrients. Then follow oat straw, flax straw, pea 

 straw and bean straw in the order named. Varieties of the 

 same kind of grain, naturally of fine growth and leafy, fur- 

 nish straw more valuable than those opposite. Soils well 

 supplied with nitrogen furnish straw more rich in protein 

 than those ill supplied with the same. A thick fine stand of 

 grain furnishes more palatable fodder than a stand thin and 

 coarse. Straw from grains grown together furnishes a vari- 

 ety, and hence larger quantities will be eaten of some of 

 them at least, than if grown alone. The straw of legumes, 



