168 
The Proper Office of Straw on a Farm. 
was the utmost extent of oil that could be found in wheat-straw ; 
the above differences, therefore, lie within narrow limits. 
But we have a residue of nearly 80 per cent, of carbonaceous 
matter, and it is about the feeding value of this matter that the 
conflict of ojiinion really takes place. 
On the one side it is urged that the chief part of this matter 
is woody fibre, of little value, only one-tenth thereof being 
soluble in water, or capable of being digested ; on the other 
side, that about half of these substances exist in the form of starch, 
sugar, and gum, capable of digestion and assimilation, and of 
immediate use for the supply of the organs of respiration as far 
as is required, besides being further available for the formation 
of fat. 
It would be a task of considerable difficulty even to state 
the theories, according to which starch may be converted into 
sugar, or either of these into fat, within the animal economy. 
Certain chemical agents are more efficacious than simple 
water in rendering these carbonaceous substances soluble ; 
and there maij be juices in the animal economy, whether acid 
or alkaline, that produce results analogous to these within the 
stomach of the animal ; moreover, some chemical processes, 
such as that of fermentation, if not carried too far, may assist 
and prepare the way for the digestive process within. It may 
be that the admixture of some other kinds of food with straw 
may conduce to the development of these gastric juices, and to 
some extent exercise a condimental influence on the digestive 
process. 
Practical men long ago liked to have the straw chaff for the 
cart horses stored some time before use, so that it underwent 
a gentle heating. This process is now often carried further, 
whether by the bruising of the clover or grass and weeds which 
grow together with the barley in the thrashing, or by the 
admixture of water or small quantities of green clover or roots 
with the chaff when cut. 
But however capable of digestion part of the tissues of the 
straw may be in themselves ; however we may be learning 
to assist nature, by, in some rude manner, cooking this food ; 
however even the admixture of other kinds of food with straw 
may aid the process of digestion as well as of nutrition, yet 
truly scientific men must hesitate before they admit that by 
some unseen unexplained process the obedient particles of 
oxygen, hydrogen, &c., actually do fly hither and thither, and 
re-arrange themselves just as we should wish them to do, for the 
formation of fat and oil ; whilst practical men, however decidedly 
they may affirm that cut straw luixcd with other food is ser- 
viceable already, however hopeful they may be that further 
