STRAW. 9 



mand. The threshers should be so proportioned to 

 the stock of lean cattle, as to make the straw last 

 just through the winter. Take good care also to 

 keep the yard well littered from the stacks of straw, 

 stubble, fern, &c. raised in autumn, so that the 

 cattle may always lye perfectly dry and clean. Their 

 health requires this attention ; which should, at 

 any rate, be given, were it merely for raising large 

 quantities of manure. 



STRAW. 



While it is noted, that if the cattle are fed with 

 straw, it should be done with certain necessary 

 attentions, it would be an omission not to remark, 

 that the best farmers in Norfolk are generally 

 agreed that cattle should eat no straw, unless it be 

 cut into chafF mixed with hay ; but, on the con- 

 trary, that they should be fed with something bet- 

 ter, and have the straw thrown under them, to be 

 trodden into dung : and I am much inclined to be- 

 lieve, that in most, if not in all cases, this maxim 

 will prove a just one. The common cases of straw- 

 feeding are, of cows, young cattle, or black cattle 

 just bought in, and not yet put to fatting. With 

 regard to cows, the food is certainly insufficient, 

 and lets them down so much in flesh, that when 

 they calve, and are expected to yield productively, 

 they lose a considerable time, and that, perhaps, 

 the most valuable, in getting again into flesh, be- 

 fore they give their usual quantity of milk ; but if 

 they have been well and sufficiently wintered, they 



are 



