The Proper Office of Straiv on a Farm. 
153 
This whole bod of clay is very moist ; so much so that when 
(h ied it h)ses one (juarter of its wci<?ht. At about 3 feet from 
tlie bottom it bejjan to present <a l)lackish appearance, and to 
contain numerous but minute cockle-shells. 
Immediately below the clay we came upon a bed of brotrii 
peat, to the depth of 2 feet 4 inches. Within these limits lay, as 
in a cake, parts of the roots, trunks, branches, and leaves of the 
oriifinal forest, which was overthrown when this plain was pro- 
l)ably converted into an estuary ; the Scotch fir, the birch, and 
the hazel seem to have been the prevailing^ trees. The workmen 
immediately observed a sulphurous smell connected with the 
frafiments which they brou^^ht up, a lact Avhich may perhaps 
account for the blackening of the clay above. Under this brown 
peat lay the clay, of which a specimen is examined in Analysis 
No. 2. This latter clay resembled that above in colour, but dif- 
fered from it remarkably by being much more solid and dry, as if 
the peat above had tanned itself into a mass impermeable to water. 
It is the same clav stratum which may be seen in the trenches- 
alongside the Great Northern Railroad, near Holme Station, with 
the stumps of the forest standing erect in the bottom of the trench. 
With this investigation we closed our survey of this great 
undertaking, which is not the only service that Mr. Wells has 
rendered to agriculture, as the list of prizes and commendations 
awarded to stock exhibited at Canterbury testifies more than 
once. — P. H. F. 
IX. — The Proper Office of Siraw on a Farm. By Henry 
evershed. 
Prize Essay. 
Straw is used on most farms, both as food for stock, and as a bed 
for them to lie on ; I shall therefore endeavour to assign to each, 
of these uses its proper value. The requirements of the farm- 
yard necessitate, as I believe, certain modifications in the use of 
straw ; and the system of letting the cattle " eat their liking " 
Irom the crib, and tread the rest under foot, though still finding 
favour in some secluded districts, m.ay be amended. 
The present high price and growing demand lor meat will 
make us all look inquiringly at our straw-stacks, anxious to know 
whether all their value departed with the grain, or whether there- 
be not beef and mutton latent in straw as well as in turnips. 
It is a common remark on many of the best managed and most 
profitable farms, " How shall I manage to tread all this straw into 
good dung ? " And on other farms differently situated, " Ho\y 
shall I get straw for all this stock ? " 
