[99] 



Clover hay 8 pounds. 



Pea straw ^ 6 pounds. 



Bean straw 5 pounds. 



Wheat straw 52 pounds. 



Rye straw 61 pounds. 



Barley straw 52 pounds. 



Oat straw 55 pounds. 



Corn fodder 40 pounds. 



Some allowances will have to be made for the various 

 kinds of straw and hay, as much, indeed a large part, de- 

 pends on the time of cutting, manner of curing and storing ; 

 the same hay or straw under different circumstances pre- 

 senting very different nutritive effects. It will be a difficult 

 matter to persuade our Tennessee farmers that corn fodder 

 is four times less valuable than hay, as many of us believe 

 it is almost equal, and many, that it is superior to any kind 

 of hay. These analyses are from Professor Way, and he 

 frankly admits that the fodder is estimated. We think his 

 -estimate is below its value, from the fact that this roughness 

 has always heretofore, and still is, largely relied on to the 

 exclusion of all others. 



It however becomes very apparent from the insight given 

 by these tables, that our usual method of depending on a 

 pile of straw to feed cattle or sheep is a very precarious way 

 of keeping them in order, or even alive. It is true the straws 

 have a value, but just think for one moment of the amount of 

 straw that must enter a sheep's stomach to enable it to live. 

 It would not be impossible for a sheep to consume ten pounds 

 of hay in a day, and yet to procure the same amount of nutri- 

 tion that sheep must eat of wheat straw 52 pounds, of rye 

 straw 61 pounds, and of oat straw 55 pounds. It is very 

 evident from this tabulation that if they had no other food 

 they would starve to death. With the addition of grain, or 

 some other of the more concentrated forms of food, they can 

 do very well with a constant access to the straw pile. 



Our Northern brethren have long since adopted a system 

 of raising quantities of roots adequate to the necessities of 



