OF STRAW, ITS TALUE, AND USES* 429 



stowed upon it. Farmers are too apt to consider it as of 

 little or no value, because it is not generally saleable, and 

 is rarely estimated separately from the yearly produce of 

 tbe soil. But though it is not in general, (except in the 

 vicinity of towns), a marketable commodity, yet it is a fund, 

 which, under proper modes of consumption, is necessary 

 to preserve our tillage land from deterioration, and on 

 which the amount of its future produce most essentially 

 depends.* 



* Remark by Alexander Low, Esq. of Gordon Bank, an eminent 

 Scottish agriculturist, and land-surveyor. 



On the subject of converting the whole of the straw into manure, by 

 littering it, Mr Young states, that every doubt upon that subject would 

 be removed, by considering the detail of a farm, where such a plan was 

 practised, founded on certain data, relative to the several objects of ro- 

 tation, product of straw, demand for litter, and proportioning the fatten- 

 ing beasts kept the year round in the stalls, with the litter thus neces- 

 sary. Such a plan would demand from twelve to fourteen fat oxen, to 

 every pair of horses employed, and either six acres of lucerne, or twelve 

 of good natural grass. He adds, that the great reason why such farms 

 are not to be found in every district, and that the practice of feeding 

 with straw is defended, all resolves itself into want of capital, for such a 

 system requires a far greater sum than farmers generally possess. 



