CHAP. v. VALUE OF STRAW AS FOOD. 987 



is the percentage of sugar, upon which greatly depends the feeding value 

 of the solid matter. The composition (and therefore the feeding value) 

 of grass, clover, hay, and straw, has, in each case, a very wide range, 

 according to the time at which it is cut or harvested. The straw from 

 barely ripe corn is much more nutritious than that from fully ripe or 

 over-ripe corn, being much more digestible. Thus, in actual practice, 

 the straw of oats, which are generally cut before they get quite ripe, is 

 probably usually more nutritious than that of wheat, which is cut 

 riper ; and the straw of barley which is generally allowed to get dead 

 ripe before being cut is probably generally the least nutritious. 



The variation in the value of green grass and clover, is very mucli 

 greater, as it is subject to almost daily fluctuation, and even the 

 nutritive value of hay is very dependent upon the precise time at 

 which it is made, as well as upon the mode of making. It is usually 

 considered that just before the time of full flowering is the best at 

 which to cut grass for hay. Up to this point it is advantageous to 

 leave it growing, but directly the seed begins to form, the hay-value of 

 the grass begins to deteriorate, owing to the hardening of the tissues ac- 

 companied by an absorption of sugar and an increase in wood}' fibre. 1 



In this chapter it is not necessary to make many further ex- 

 planatory remarks on the feeding properties of the different foods 

 grown on the farm, either dry or succulent. The various modes of 

 consumption of grass and clover, either as pasture, cut green fodder, 

 or hay, are discussed in previous chapters devoted to farm practice, and 

 so also with roots and with other green crops like cabbages, rape, 

 vetches, &c., to which it is not here deemed necessary to make any 

 further allusion than that they are, on the whole, similar to root crops 

 or between green clover and root crops in their composition and 

 feeding properties. 



It is, however, deemed right to point out at this stage the very con- 

 siderable nutritive value of straw, which is too often under-estimated by 

 farmers. Much more straw than is generally utilised for feeding pur- 

 poses might be profitably chaffed and fed instead of going for litter 

 purposes, particularly in hard and long winters, the deficiency in litter 

 thus caused being made up for by the purchase of peat-moss litter, a 

 ton of which goes at least two or three times as far as straw for bedding 

 on account of its much greater absorptive properties. Straw well 

 soaked and slightly salted is an excellent material to eke out a scanty 

 supply of roots, some cake, or bean-meal, or pea-meal, being given to 

 make up for its special deficiency in albuminoids. 



Of the dry concentrated foods that have been mentioned, a glance at 

 the tables shows that on the whole there is great similarity in the 

 composition of oats, wheat, rye, barley, maize, and rice meal, if we 

 translate oil into its value in soluble carbohydrates by multiplying it 

 by 2. In brewers' grains dried, and in beans, peas, and the several oil- 



1 Readers who wish to obtain more complete information of the ascertained variations in 

 the composition of almost all varieties of feeding-stuffs used for agricultural purposes, will 

 find very full tables in Armsby's "Manual of Cattle Feeding," published by Messrs. Wiley 

 k Sons, of New York. 



