Straio- Chaff for Feeding Purposes. 
cutting the straw into cbaff at the same time. With a ton of 
straw-chaff he uses about 1 cwt. of rye or tares, cut green into 
chaff, and 1 bushel of common salt. This is done in spring 
and summer ; the chaff is not used until October or the winter 
months. 
The addition of the green stuff causes the straw-chaff mixture 
to heat ; the volatile and odoriferous principles produced by 
the fermentation are retained by the straw-chaff, itself under- 
going a kind of slow cooking process, and they impregnate the 
whole mass with an extremely pleasant flavour, scarcely in- 
ferior to that which characterises well made meadow-hay. 
It appeared to me interesting, if not useful, to compare the 
nutritive properties of straw-chaff prepared according to Mr. 
Jonas's plan with ordinary wheat-straw, and I therefore made a 
careful analysis of a sample of chaff taken from the bulk at 
Chrishall Grange, and kindly supplied to me by Mr. Jonas. 
The following results were obtained in the analysis of this 
straw-chaff : — 
Moisture 7"7(> 
Oil and fatty matter 1'60 
*Albiiminous compounds (flesh-forming matters) .. 4'19 
Sugar, gum, and other organic comiiounds soluble 
in water lO'lG 
Digestible fibre 35"74 
Woody fibre (cellulose) 34*54 
Insoluble mineral matter (chiefly silica) .. .. 3"20 
Saline mineral matters (chiefly common salt) .. 2'81 
100-00 
* Containing nitrogen "67 
In explanation of the term woody fibre (Cellulose) in the pre- 
ceding analysis, I would observe that it applies to that portion 
of the straw-chaff which remains behind after successively 
boiling the material with water, dilute sulphuric acid, and dilute 
caustic potash solution, and exhausting the residual dried sub- 
stance with alcohol and ether. There can be no doubt that the 
different alkaline and acid secretions in the animal organism 
exercise similar, probably even more, energetic effects upon 
straw than these successive exhaustions with various chemical 
agents in the laboratory. The treatment with dilute acid and 
alkali, therefore, affords a better insight into the digestibility 
of the bulk of straw than the mere exhaustion with water. Let 
us now compare the preceding analytical results with the com- 
position of ordinary wheat-chaff. 
The following is the composition of a sample of well-harvested 
wheat-straw, which was neither under nor over ripe ; — 
