OF STRAW, ITS VALUE, AND USES. 385 



7 s. per English acre, to which may be added, L. 1 per acre, 

 for the after-math, or L. 4, 7 s. in all. The same land, 

 however, besides the straw, if well manured, and properly 

 cultivated, would produce SO bushels of wheat, or 60 

 bushels of oats, which would do much more than compen 

 sate that difference, and the expences of its cultivation. 

 Hence the comparison comes to be, not so much between 

 hay and straw, as between grass and arable crops. 



It is to be observed, on this head, that from November 

 to March, the straw of oats, beans, and peas, and, in some 

 districts, barley or bear, is, with an allowance of corn, the 

 chief food of farm horses in Scotland ; and thus supplying 

 the place of hay, it is of nearly the same value to the farm- 

 er ; and though hay will make an ox fat, which no quan 

 tity of straw will do, yet the question is not as to the re- 

 lative fattening qualities of hay and straw, but whether 

 straw may not be used, in some cases, with advantage, 

 as a substitute for hay. Whatever may be the price of 

 hay, it is proved, by the experience of the most intelli- 

 gent farmers in Scotland, that bean and peas-straw, in 

 particular, when properly harvested, is worth three-fourths 

 of that price, any time between November and March, 

 for feeding working horses and oxen, or for giving even 

 to fattening cattle, mixed with richer food, at least at the 

 commencement of that process. 



As straw is rarely permitted to be sold, being usually 

 employed in maintaining winter stock, Mr Brown of Mar- 

 kle remarks, that the real value of the article to the farmer 

 is but inconsiderable, depending upon the quantity and 

 the quality of the dung it produces. If 130 tron stones 

 of straw can be manufactured into four double cart-loads 

 of dung, (as is generally supposed), and if the dung be 

 estimated at ten shillings per load, a price it is worth when 

 properly manufactured, the value to the farmer, does not 



VOL. i. SB 



