402 OF STRAW, ITS VALUE, AND USES. 



tening stock, for eight or tea weeks immediately before 

 grass, with a small quantity occasionally given to the sheep 

 fed on turnips. The expence of feeding even the horses 

 alone, for eight months, on hay, would be more than a 

 farmer can well afford ; at the same time, it is a rule with 

 the best farmers in East-Lothian, to give hay to their 

 horses in the early part of winter, that is, from the middle 

 of October, to the llth of November old style; then peas 

 or bean-straw, till seed-time commences in the spring, 

 and afterwards hay. 



Straw keeps much better unthreshed, in a large stack, 

 than in a barn. Straw in general, more especially white 

 straw, is found to lose its value as fodder, in whatever way 

 it may be kept, after the sharp dry breezes of the spring 

 months have set in. 



It is a general rule, that straw, when intended to be used 

 as food for stock, should be given, as speedily as possible, 

 after it is threshed. The threshing separates and exposes 

 it so much, that if kept long, it is, comparatively speak- 

 ing, of little value as fodder. Lisle, an intelligent writer 

 on agriculture, and a practical farmer, states, that he 

 found cows did not eat straw so well on a Monday morn- 

 ing, as they did the rest of the week, because the straw 

 was not fresh from the flail. Straw, therefore, should be 

 constantly made use of, as soon after it is threshed as pos- 

 sible, for by keeping, it becomes either musty, or too 

 dry, and cattle do not eat it, nor thrive on it so well. It 

 cannot be doubted, that air has a very injurious effect upon 

 all kinds of fodder, and the more it can be kept from the 

 influence of the sun and the atmosphere, so much the 

 better.* 



The reason why hay is less injured than straw by keeping, is its being 

 more closely packed, and consequently less exposed to the influence of 

 the atmosphere. 



