St rate as Food for Stock. 
121 
to the largest northern towns, but the risks of the fruit not 
finding a market are few where the population is dense and jam 
manufactories exist. 
Fruit-growers can hardly help to remedy this monopoly ot 
soft fruit in thickly populated places, as the article is so highly 
perishable. They can, however, better regulate the supply of 
hard fruit, such as apples, pears, and filberts, by a better 
arrangement of varieties in their plantations, anil by forwarding 
to market only fruit actually fit for consumption ; and by doing 
this they would prevent a great waste of fruit, and obtain far 
better prices for their produce. 
111. — Straw as Food for Stock. By JosEril Darby. 
The utilisation of waste substances is a matter which has 
received profound attention during the past few years. On the 
farm, no less than in the mill or workshop, there are waste 
products to be utilised ; and wherever turnips, clover, or wheat 
have been produced, instead of fern, briars, and heather, a highly 
important utilisation of waste substances cannot but have taken 
place. But this is only one of several ways in which the 
farmer may convert material from low and comparatively value- 
less uses to the accomplishment of highly important objects. 
A sufficient illustration may be found in the very different treat- 
ment the straw of our grain-crops undergoes after the separation 
of the more valuable part of the produce has been effected. On 
the farm of one man, it is almost entirely appropriated in 
soaking up the profuse drenchings of wet yards ; on that of 
another, large additional food-stores become created, which 
permit the increase of flocks and herds, and a grand increment 
in the production of mutton and beef. That the one case 
exhibits a decided waste must be very evident, the other leads 
to the creation of fresh wealth. 
This subject has at different times received very compre- 
hensive treatment in past volumes of this Journal. In 185(5 
and 1857, Mr. Horsfall published his valuable experiments in 
feeding dairy cattle, in which straw of different kinds played an 
important part. In 1860, Mr. H. Evershed, in a Prize Essay, 
dealt with the question very fully, and embodied many facts 
and suggestions, which are still of great practical value ; and 
in 1861, Dr. Voelcker produced an elaborate Report on the 
nutritive properties of straw, in which the distinctive quali- 
ties of the different kinds were clearly pointed out, and deduc- 
tions were drawn from analysis, calculated to awaken attention 
