The Proper Office of Straw on a Farm. 
165 
acres of corn would probably be required to furnish 200 tons of 
straw for litter ; nor, if we attempt to strike an average for 
the whole kingdom, will these proportions be much changed. 
For first, as to wheat-straw, Stephens, vol. i. 1991, cites 1 ton 
7 cwt. as Arthur Young's estimate, no account being taken of 
the weaker soils. He then quotes Scotch authorities, giving 
1 ton 5 cwt. and 1 ton 7G lbs. per imperial acre as the results of 
their experience ; and concludes by expressing his own opinion 
that 1 ton per imperial acre is too high an average for Scotland. 
Mr. Morton, in one of his latest papers on the forces used 
in agriculture, has estimated an acre of a good wheat-crop, tied 
in sheaves, at 5000 lbs., M'hich seems to be a Avell-considered 
and just estimate. Now if of this there be of grain 8 sacks, 
weighing 18 st. each, the corn alone would weigh 18 cwts. or 
2000 lbs. nearly, leaving 3000 lbs. as the weight of the straw, or 
nearly 1 ton 7 cwt. ; a result coinciding exactly with that of 
Arthur Young.* 
With respect to barley and oat-straw, Stephens's estimates 
place them at about two-thirds and three-fourths, respectively, of 
the bulk of wheat-straw grown per acre, or 18 cwt. and 20^ cwt. 
respectively. 
We may, therefore, safely assume on the average, that one acre 
of wheat and one acre of spring-corn together will not yield more 
than 2 tons 10 cwt. of straw, or 250 tons from 200 acres of corn. 
I come now to the consideration of the other sources of 
demand upon the straw-stack besides that of litter. 
First we have cart-horses, consuming cut chaff : — our author 
speaks of 10 such horses ; this would not be an adequate 
number for the extent of arable land we are contemplating : 
13 would probably be required on an easy-working light 
soil — but if beasts on the average consume as much straw in 
the shape of fodder as horses, the result will be the same for 
10 horses and 40 beasts as it would be for 13 horses and 37 
beasts. 
I find upon Inquiry that in my cart-stables there was con- 
sumed, besides corn and a moderate allowance of hay, by the 
young horses 10 lbs. per day, and by some older mares 15 lbs., 
of cut Avheat-straw and barley-chaff. 
In winter the allowance of hay would be occasionally dimin- 
ished, and considerably more straw eaten in consequence ; on 
* It is not clearly stated whether reaped or mown sheaves are intended, but 
this, though important in itself, does not so immediately affect the object now in 
view as might at first sight appear, because if the farm has not an ample supply 
of "haulm" for storing roots and other purposes, a greater deduction will have 
to be made from the total supply of straw to meet these demands. 
