4? 10 OP STRAW, ITS VALUE, AND USES. 



S. In fold-yards ; and, 4. in open folds, where sheep are 

 littered with straw. 



1. Lont Kanies strongly recommends feeding cattle in 

 well-Jittered stalls, as a better mode of making dung, and 

 more beneficial to the animals themselves, than in a dung- 

 yard, even though there may be an open shed to retire to, 

 in bad weather. The nearer the air approaches to the 

 heat of blood, the better, he contends, will the cattle 

 thrive; a cow, when comfortably sheltered, gives more 

 milk, and an ox intended for the butcher, fattens soon- 

 er than when exposed to the vicissitudes of the seasons 

 in a dung-yard.* The greater proportion of practical 

 farmers in the Lothians, concur in these opinions. .It is 

 remarked, at the same time, that other kinds of stock, be- 

 sides cows giving milk, and oxen intended for the butcher^ 

 may be employed in converting straw into dung. 



Mr Bailey of Chillingham, on the other hand, con- 

 tends, that though tying up cattle in stalls is the most 

 likely means of making cattle eat the whole of the straw, 

 yet they will certainly thrive much better, and will make 

 a greater quantity of manure, owing to more straw being 

 required for litter in the one way than in the other, in a 

 fold-yard with sheds, than in stalls. They will also eat 

 out of doors, what they refuse in the house. Mr Clark of 

 Mayfield is of the same opinion ; but says it requires suf- 

 ficient accommodation, to prevent the cattle from running 

 and pushing at one another. He therefore recommends a 

 cross wall, six or seven feet high, in the middle of the 

 feeding yards, as the simplest and best mode of prevent- 

 ing such mischief. Every plan, however, has its advan- 

 tages and defects. It is certain that lean straw- fed cattle 



* Kames' Gentleman Farmer, p 204. Before this work was publish 

 ed, Mr Young, in his Eastern Tour, recommended this practice, on the 

 authority of Mr Hoodie of Retford. 



