144 
Straw as Food for Stock. 
dilated upon in this ' Journal,' is an advocate for much more 
straw being utilised in feeding stock than what is commonly 
deemed necessary. The subjoined particulars of Mr. Randell's ex- 
perience in the conversion of straw into beef, which he has been 
good enough to furnish me with, will afford invaluable evidence 
in determining the value which should be placed on that article 
for feeding purposes on heavy-land farms ; while his method of 
winter-feeding sheep in yards, the sheds of which are supplied 
with burnt clay instead of litter, not only helps to elucidate the 
primary difficulty of keeping sheep in winter on clay farms, but 
admirably illustrates one of the main points in the present 
inquiry. Mr. Randell says : — 
" After having heard how readily and profitably straw, aided by roots, cake, 
and corn, is converted into beef in Norfolk, aud other root-growing counties, 
and the manure, essential for the reproduction of the means of carrying on 
the process preserved, you may like to know how the occupier of a clayland 
farm) where to attempt to grow turnips is in the opinion of some good prac- 
tical farmers in the neighbourhood a sufficient qualification for a lunatic 
asylum), tries to convert his straw into manure which deserves the name 
without serious loss. 
" I have 15 two-year-old steers feeding, U, „ ■ 
or .,, J . i . ,, r ' these with their manure 
25 milking and in-calf cows, < , . , , 
2 bulls ' I are entirely under cover. 
6 two-year-old heifers, I In small yards, shedding 
15 yearlings, I spouted. 
" These 63 animals consume daily as follows : — 
" As much steamed chaff, one-fourth hay, three-fourths straw, as they will cat. 
£ s. d. 
4 bushels Indian corn, costing 0 14 0 
1 5 cwt. decorticated cotton-cake 0 12 6 
1 cwt. bran 0 5 G 
1 cwt. malt-dust 0 5 6 
2 bushel Black Sea linseed (boiled) .. .. 0 4 6 
£2 2 0 per day 
for purchased food only. Now this cannot pay in the shape of a direct money 
return, and can only be excused by estimating highly the value of the mauure 
— an estimate which will be fallacious or otherwise in proportion to the extent 
to which the manure is protected from rain. If it be made in large open yards, 
with the surrounding buildings unspouted, the loss is certain ; in small yards, 
where the open space is not — and it should never be — more than as five to two 
of the spouted shedding, it is questionable ; but in covered yards the cost of 
food may be recovered, while only one-half the litter is necessary, thus 
economising straw and carting ; for it is obvious that a much smaller quantity 
per acre of this concentrated and unwashed manure will be required for any 
crop. The cattle, too, so protected, will give a greater increase for the food 
consumed. 
" It will frequently happen that by rigid economy in the use of hay — the 
most expensive food, looking at its selling value, that a farmer can give to his 
cattle — he may be able to sell some to cover in part the cost of purchased 
food. 
