156 
The Proper Office of Straw on a Farm. 
used daily per head is 48 lbs., or twice as much as is required 
under shelter. 
It is stated in an excellent paper on manure, in ' Morton's Cy- 
clopedia,' that 20 lbs. of straw per day are required to litter an ox, 
in a box containing 100 s([uare feet. This agrees with the quan- 
tity used in my own boxes, in each of which I find, after six 
months' fatting, 8 tons of dung, G tons 8 cwts. of which are derived 
from the ox, and 1 ton 12 cwt. from the litter.* About 24 lbs. per 
head are used in the covered yards, which are occasionally treated 
to a dose from the stable-tank. 
Fifty head of beast, fattened in covered yards, will produce in 
six months — • 
Tons. 
Voided by the animals 325 
Litter (24 lbs. per head daily) . , . . 100 nearly 
425 
425 tons of dung, fit to plough into the ground at once. 
The same stock in open yards will produce — 
Avoided by the animals 325 
Litter (48 lbs. daily) 200 
Water ? 
525 
525 tons of mixture, to be carted to a heap and fermented. This 
is exclusive of a great weight of water.t 
In six months fatting of 50 head of cattle, in covered yards, 
the amount of straw saved is therefore 100 tons ; worth, at Mr. 
Horsfall's estimate, 35s. per ton, to convert into butter and beef ! 
I conclude this part of the subject by observing, that the pro- 
per use of straw as litter is, to provide a comfortable bed, and to 
absorb the excrements of the stock. These conditions can only be 
fully secured when the bed on which the animals lie is covered. 
Straio as an article of Food. 
All cattle will eat a certain quantity of straw if they can get 
it. The calf, who knows no stint, nevertheless, chews straw in 
his pen, and the pampered medallist at Baker Street, or Bingley 
* Mr. Lawes informs me that he takes from his horse-boxes, of the same size, 
6 tons in 6 mouths. The one statement con-oborates the other, or rather Jlr. 
Lawes shows quite as small a decrease as I should have anticipated from the horse 
being out at work during so many hours. As far as 1 could ascertain, the supply 
of straw given to the horse averaged quite as much as 20 lbs. per day ; and if this 
be the case, the horse would contribute about two-thirds as much as the ox to 
make up 6 tons. — P. H. F. 
t The exact weight of water left in the dung cannot easily be estimated, as a 
portion evaporates and some runs olT ; but if 110 tons per annum fall on a yard 
.50 feet by 40 feet, and if eight such yards are needed for 50 head of stock, and if 
the dung be exposed during 6 months of average rain-fall, the 525 tons of dung 
will be soaked by 4G4 tons of water. — H. E. 
