Composition and Nutritive Value of Straw. 29 



Detailed Composition. 



Water 17'75 



Oil -41 



"Albuminous compounds 5*06 



Mucilage, extractive matters, and woody fibre 73-46 



Mineral matters 3'32 



100-00 

 *Contain ing nitrogen -81 



This sample is somewhat richer in albuminous compounds 

 and poorer in oil than that grown in 1860; but the differ- 

 ences are not great. On the other hand, both specimens agree 

 in furnishing but a small proportion of matters soluble in 

 water. 



I would direct particular attention to the fact, clearly brought 

 out in my investigations on straw, that the crude woody fibre (the 

 part insoluble in water) of bean-stalks is very little acted upon 

 by dilute caustic potash and dilute sulphuric acid ; that the 

 woody fibre of wheat-straw is more easily affected by these re- 

 agents than the bean-stalks ; and that barley, or oat straw, is 

 acted on by the same agents in a still higher degree. We 

 cannot therefore doubt, that whilst a large proportion of the 

 crude woody fibre of pea, barley, and especially oat straw, is 

 assimilated by ruminating animals, bean-stalks are digested to 

 much less extent. 



As far as my own analytical results allow me to form an 

 opinion, bean-stalks cut up by themselves into chaff, though 

 useful as food when harvested in a good season, are decidedly 

 inferior to any other description of straw. If I am not mistaken, 

 these analytical results fully confirm the practical experience of 

 the farmers in our neighbourhood, who, like most of their class, 

 put a low estimate on the feeding value of bean-stalks. Bean- 

 pods, it will be seen, contain a considerable proportion of albu- 

 minous compounds ; they are, moreover, more tender and, no 

 doubt, more easily digested than the hard stalks. When, there- 

 fore cattle or sheep are allowed to pick out the pods and softer 

 portions of bean-stalks, they do very well, for these parts are 

 much more nutritious than the lower and harder parts. The 

 preceding analysis, it should be remembered, has been made of 

 the whole bean-stalks without the pods. 



FLAX-STRAW. 



In the neighbourhood of flax-mills a refuse material, which is 

 called " skimp," is produced in considerable quantities, which is 

 nothing more or less than flax-straw chaff. A specimen, on ana- 

 lysis, furnished the following results : 



