386 OF STRAW, ITS VALUE, AND USES. 



much exceed 3d. per stone, tron weight, of 22 Ib. avoirdu- 

 pois, or about L. 1, 12 s per English acre : Nor was straw 

 formerly reckoned of' much value for feeding. Mr Brown 

 stales, that before turnips were generally cultivated, many 

 fanners in East-Lothian, were in the habit of wintering 

 cattle, of a moderate size, for dealers and others, charging 

 only 15s. per head, from the middle of October, to the 

 first of May : and Mr Bailey of Chillingham, in Northum- 

 berland, informs me, that 20s. for wintering, is still a 

 common price in his neighbourhood. 



So little is it thought necessary accurately to ascertain 

 the value of straw, that in several cases it has been given 

 by the outgoing, to the incoming tenant, as an equiva- 

 lent for the expence of harvesting, threshing, and market- 

 ing the last crop.* It is often thought insufficient to cover 

 even that expence, and a farther abatement is allowed on 

 the price of the grain. A farmer of Roxburghshire informs 

 me, that in 1806, he sold the straw of a crop, consisting 

 chiefly of oats, with a small proportion of barley, at 2s. 6d. 

 for the straw of each boll, equal to 7k Winchester bushels, 

 he being at the expence of reaping, carting, and stacking, 

 and the purchaser of threshing and marketing; so that 

 the straw would cost him in ail about 5 s. per boll of grain, 

 or 40 s. per acre. The crop was estimated at 60 bushels 

 per acre; the straw at about 125 stones, of 22 Ibs. each, 

 or 1| ton, at which rate it only cost 3^ d.per stone. Had 

 it only amounted to 100 stone, it would have cost but 5d. 

 a stone, at which price the purchaser would have been 

 amply repaid in fodder and dung, In the same district, 



* This can only take place, where the crop is not steel-bore ; that is, 

 ,whert: the straw belongs to the landlord or incoming tenant, which ought 

 always to be the case. 



