Composition and Nutritive Value of Straw. 19 



indigestible. It may be safely inferred from this that oat-straw 

 is assimilated by animals to a larger extent than wheat-straw ; 

 and as it contains moreover more sugar and mucilage than the 

 latter, and as much oil and albuminous matter, the specimen 

 analysed by me is decidedly more nutritious than the sample of 

 wheat-straw which I analysed. In all probability the difference 

 is due to the fact that oats, on account of the readiness with 

 which they shed the grain, are generally reaped in a less matured 

 condition than wheat. 



Another sample of oat-straw, grown in 1861, submitted to a 

 less complete analysis, furnished the following results : 



Oat-straw from Farm-buildings. 



General Composition. 



Water 19-50 



Substances soluble in water 10*85 



Substances insoluble in water 69-65 



100-00 

 Detailed Composition. 



Water 19-50 



Oil 1-54 



* Protein compounds .: 2*75 



Mucilage, sugar, cellular fibre, &c 71*39 



Mineral matters (ash) 4*82 



*Containing nitrogen 



These results agree perfectly with the preceding in regard to 

 the proportion of oil and albuminous matter, and tolerably well 

 in the amount of substances soluble in water. 



Having found that the nutritive properties of straw are greatly 

 affected by the state of maturity at which the crop is harvested, 

 and come to the conclusion that it is very desirable to reap oats 

 in a somewhat green condition, I took an opportunity carefully 

 to investigate the nature of the differences which are exhibited 

 by oat-straw in a green, in a fairly ripe, and in an over-ripe 

 condition. In 1860 it will be remembered that our grain crops 

 ripened rather unequally. This circumstance enabled me to 

 examine oat-straw in both a green and a fairly ripe condition. 

 In that year Mr. Coleman, Professor of Agriculture in the Royal 

 Agricultural College, Cirencester, thought it desirable to begin 

 the oat-harvest, whilst the straw was yet somewhat green, inas- 

 much as the oat-field was large, and this crop, when too ripe, 

 is very apt to shed its seed. This field was reaped on the 

 20th of August, and on that day I selected some of the oats in 

 a still somewhat green condition, and likewise some in a fairly 

 ripe state. In the green oat-straw, examined directly after the 



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