OF STRAW, ITS VALUE, AND USES. 419 



tity of urine as when they are fed on turnips, by which 

 dung is rendered so valuable; for without a sufficiency 

 of moisture, straw is never properly decomposed by fer- 

 mentation. It would probably, therefore, be a great im- 

 provement in their system, if, instead of hay and oil- 

 cake, they would feed their cattle with straw and turnips. 

 Their cattle and horses should all be soiled in summer, in- 

 stead of so large a portion of their clovers being consumed 

 by sheep. By following this plan, they would soon have, 

 if they adopted the system of drilling turnips, manure 

 enough to raise from 30 to 40 tons of turnips per acre, 

 instead of their present scanty crops, not exceeding from 

 15 to 20 tons ; and no foreign manure would be necessary. 

 The whole depends on soiling cattle and horses in sum- 

 mer, feeding cattle with straw and turnips, and horses 

 with straw and ruta-baga, three months in winter, and 

 converting all the rest of their straw into dung, well sa- 

 turated with urine. On this point, some additional ob- 

 servations will be found in the annexed paper, which 

 contains a number of important particulars regarding the 

 usual mode of converting straw into clung in Scptland, 

 especially on turnip farms. 



On the subject of littering, two questions remain to be 

 discussed} 1. Whether littering with straw could be dis- 

 pensed with ? and, 2. What other material could be em- 

 ployed for absorbing the urine of stock ? 



1. In Arabia, where the finest horses ki the world are 

 kept, no litter is used ; and I remember, when on a visit, 

 in the year 1786, to the celebrated Count Alexis Orlow 

 Chesminskoy at Moscow, that his horses were not littered, 

 though he paid very particular attention to them. Horses 

 might lie very comfortably, by having the corners of 

 their stalls rilled up with boards, on which some coarse 



