152 
Straw as Food for Stock. 
more may be made out of straw. The farmers of Lincolnshire 
who, by growing grain crops bulky and coarse in straw, fancy 
there is little feeding virtue in it, are still accustomed even now 
to utilise no small portion as food, by their stock being allowed 
to pick out of large quantities the tit-bits and stalk-tops. By 
adopting earlier cutting they would, no doubt, find a means of 
economic management hitherto only partially explored. 
Nor must it be forgotten that however much the coarseness 
of texture and the condition of the straw of different districts 
may affect their value for feeding purposes, the best of the best 
would not be worth much given singly, without the addition of 
rich substances, such as oil-cake or corn-meal, with root-pulp, or 
roots, should the latter be plentiful. Only as an ingredient in 
a mixed dietary for stock, can straw yield fully the advantages 
it is capable of rendering as a food substance. This does not 
imply that straw should be utilised in this way or that. Many 
farmers like to save expense ; and it is natural, perhaps, that 
the material, when exceedingly abundant and not of the finest 
texture and quality, should be given whole and in large quan- 
tity ; but still, if the animals are at the same time fed with 
sufficient liberality on richer substances, so as to keep them 
laying on flesh actively, or yielding milk bountifully, or if 
young, in active growth and thriving condition, the principal 
object will be attained. 
However strange to the ears of some it may sound to hear 
of beef, mutton, or butter being derived as the direct result of 
feeding on straw, this appears to be the most economical way 
of producing either of those high-priced articles in winter, 
provided that straw forms one item only in the dietary, of 
which the other items should be roots and oil-cake, or corn, 
as a rule, but varied with other rich and suitable ingredients 
if they be cheaper to purchase, or more adapted to the wants 
of the animals. 
Mr. Mechi says : — 
" If we are to consume all our bean-, barley-, wheat-, and oat-straw, \vc must 
keep our animals on sparred floors, or on burnt clay, and we must invest 
more capital in animals. We shall then make much more meat per acre. If 
a ton of straw will make 40 lbs. of meat, and if 2 tons of straw are grown per 
acre of our cereal and pulse crops, it would be four score pounds of meat 
per acre over the whole of the cereals and pulse." 
Of course Mr. Mechi did not mean that it is possible to make 
so much meat out of straw, unless it be given in conjunction 
with auxiliary feeding stuffs ; for immediately afterwards, to 
quiet any apprehensions as to the manure-heap being lessened 
in value, he says, " Your animal, by this mode of feeding, 
consumes 560 lbs. of rape-cake with every ton of straw." 
