426 OF STRAW, ITS VALUE, AND USES. 



till both are exhausted. This speedily forms a compost of 

 the first quality, and prevents a waste that would most in- 

 fallibly ensue, by the melting and running off of the juices 

 of the sea-ware, which invariably happens without this 

 precaution, to the amount of three-fourths of the whole 

 mass. This is an excellent plan where the sea-weed can- 

 not be immediately applied, but it is the best system, to 

 plough it in, when obtained. 



Near Gloucester, great quantities of bean-halm, (as well 

 as common straw), are bought up at a pot-ash manufac- 

 tory, and burnt for the ashes.* 



Among the various other objects to which straw has 

 been applied, it must not be omitted, that attempts have 

 been made to convert it into paper, which, after some 

 expensive experiments, were abandoned. 



Straw, to a considerable extent, is used in making collars 

 for horses, or brahams, as they are called in East-Lothian. 



Straw is also used for stuffing beds. For that purpose 

 the chaff of oats is found to be a material not much infe- 

 rior to ordinary feathers; and being so much cheaper, 

 chaff beds are almost universally used by the lower orders 

 in Scotland. 



Another purpose to which straw is applied, is that of 

 packing ; and it is proper to observe, that the quantity 

 used in packing china and stone-ware, in the districts where 

 those manufactures prevail, as in Staffordshire, is found to 

 be a serious injury to the farmer. 



The most recent discovery, connected with any straw 

 production, is that of the Rev. James Hall, who has ascer- 

 tained, that every bean stalk, according to its size, contains 

 from 20 to 35 filaments, which are of a nature among the 



* Marshall's Gloucestershire, vol. i. p. 153. 



