136 
Straw as Food for Stock. 
will be considered an improvement calculated to extend the 
adoption of the system. The method originally described by 
the late Mr. S. Jonas almost necessitated the storage taking 
place in the summer months between May and September, 
because at other times green crops would be scanty : but it 
mangold-pulp will do as well as green chaff, the storage may 
take place at any time during the heavy threshing season from 
September to March. But the system evidently admits of 
variations in details, and Mr. John Ford, of Rushton, Dorset, 
a large farmer of much practical experience, in writing to me on 
the subject of this paper, maintains that the leading advantages 
of fermenting the straw, and impregnating it with a grateful 
aroma, may be obtained without cutting it into chaff at all. 
Although he has never carried out Mr. Jonas's method, yet long 
before he heard of it he had been in the habit of mixing small 
quantities of green clover with straw when stacking it fresh from 
the thresher in the month of May. This always made an im- 
portant improvement in the quality and flavour of the straw 
by the time it was required to be cut into chaff in the following 
winter ; and his cattle devoured it with great avidity. A 
suggestion was made by myself in an agricultural newspaper, 
not long after the details of the admirable system of Mr. Jonas 
were first made public, that probably small farmers might find 
it more convenient to stack loose straw with green clover or 
trifolium, and that it appeared reasonable to suppose that 
kindred results would follow. That was, however, mere 
theory, whereas Mr. Ford renders practical proofs. Nor is this 
the only point on which he gives good testimony as to how- 
straw can be rendered most valuable as food for stock. He ijs 
regarded throughout the south-western part of the kingdom as- 
a leader of popular opinion on the question, and it appears 
from his communication to me that in his opinion all stock 
should be supplied in winter with as much straw as they will 
eat, in conjunction with either cake, corn, or roots, and that he 
makes straw a substitute for hay to an extent which enables 
him to summer-feed the greater part of his clovers. For con- 
siderably over twenty years he has been in the habit of cutting 
his oat-crops before they acquire a decidedly yellow hue, pur- 
posely to improve the feeding value of his straw ; but on this, 
topic, and some others, I must quote him entire. He says : — 
" With regard to my oat-straw, the feeding-bullocks get the greater part of 
it, and I always endeavour to cut oats before they are quite ripe, to have 
the straw better. If sheaved and put up in clumps, ten or twelve sheaves 
together, they will remain until fit for harvesting safe from much damage by 
weather, and the straw is of much better quality than it would be if allowed 
to get ripe before cutting. I believe in this plan of reaping oats prematurely ; 
no loss is sustained should there be a little in the grain ; this is more than 
made up in the straw. I find my fattening-cattle very fond of oat-straw 
