The Proper Office of Straw on a Farm. 
It is, however, a mistake in any case to be too anxious to " tread 
in " straw. Straw is not dung ; it is, as litter, a medium lor soak- 
ing- up the li([uids and solids of the farm-yard, making a dry bed 
for cattle. Taking its market value at 11. per ton (in some 
neighbourhoods it is twice as much), fifty tons will buy 50/. 
worth ol' guano, worth on any farm more than fifty tons of straw 
merely " trod into dung." * 
The using of straw for the sake of getting rid of it, is a mis- 
c alculation, and any covenants which necessitate this by with- 
holding permission to sell it, are surely founded in error. 
I shall now turn to a more common state of things, where 
straw is not in excess of the ordinary requirements of the farm : 
first examining what appears to be the most important, because 
the most indispensable, of the uses of straw, viz., as litter. All 
tlie larger animals require litter of some sort. A warm, dry, and 
soft bed is quite indispensable for their comfort. As an expe- 
dient for saving straw, I once put twelve three-year-old oxen on 
boards to fatten, and found it a very cruel experiment. The 
animals were always in a state of distress ; one of them refused 
to lie down, and remained standing four days, until the muscles 
of the thigh swelled from the unnatural tension. A comfortable 
layer of straw soon set all right again, and as the spaces between 
tlie boards allowed the moisture to pass into a drain, a great sa- 
ving of litter was effected.| 
A wish to save straw occasionally leads to a sparing use of it 
in the yards, always resulting, however, in the immediate dis- 
comfort of every head of stock. In fact, the best of food, and 
unremitting attention, will not compensate for the want of a com- 
fortable bed. Frequent supplies of dry litter in sheds and yards 
are absolutely necessary. Those who are accustomed to a well 
* The above conclusions are not strictlj' correct, or at least not applicable in all 
cases. 1st, although straw be not (lung, yet the carbon as well as the minerals 
which it contains have a positive value as manure, and exert a special influence 
on light sandy soils. On such soils guano is a very inadequate substitute for 
farmyard-manure. Moreover, in the case before us, 50 tons of straw must be taken 
to represent a large number of tons of inferior manure. On farms where a good 
liead of stock is economically fed, it must be quite an exceptional case if there be 
any superfluity of straw ; because, where the land is strong and the climate moist, 
so that a great bulk of straw per acre will be grown, there will generally be a con- 
i-iderable admixture of pasture with the arable land: when the land is light and 
the climate dry, and the farm almost exclusively arable, the yield of straw will 
not be great, and a cousiderable portion of it will be required as a substitute for 
hay in feeding the stock. A good farmer does not generally find that he has 
more straw than he can turn to good account, although, under certain circum- 
stances, he may think it better economy to sell a portion, and replace it by pur- 
chased manure. — P, H. F. 
t The cocoa-nut matting used by Mr. Horsfall in his cow-stalls may be found 
serviceable by oiher farmers who, as in his case, are situated in neighbourhoods 
where straw is both dear and scarce. It would not, however, be used to the same 
advantage for steers as for cows. — F. H. F. 
