Composition and Nutritive Value of Straw. 
good vegetable food must contain a fair proportion of albuminous 
substances. Except in the case of pea-haulm, the proportion of 
albuminous matter in straw is not large. It varies considerably 
in straw of the same kind, according to the state of maturity in 
which corn is harvested, it being larger in straw not fully ripe. 
The average percentage cannot be precisely determined, but on 
the whole we may say that well-harvested straw of good feeding 
quality contains from 2 to 3 per cent., and inferior samples from 
1^ to l£ per cent, of albuminous substances. In some cases the 
amount exceeds 3 and even 4 per cent. 
3. The non-nitrocjenized substances are as follows : — 
a. Oil, fatty, and waxy matters, with more or less 
chlorophyle. 
b. Sugar. 
c. Gum and mucilage. 
d. Extractive matters, and occasionally bitter principles. 
e. Cellulose ; and, lastly, 
f. Woody fibre. 
In some published analyses starch is mentioned as a consti- 
tuent of straw, but this is a mistake. Neither the straw of our 
cereals nor that of peas or beans contains any starch — a fact 
which any one may readily ascertain if he will either apply 
tincture of iodine directly to a fragment of straw ; or, better still, 
if he boil down a quantity with water and add a few drops of 
tincture of iodine to the perfectly cold and clean filtered decoc- 
tion, when the non-appearance of the characteristic blue colour 
of iodide of starch will indicate the absence of every trace of 
starch. 
It is much to be regretted that Avriters on agricultural matters, 
and even persons who by the public at large are considered 
scientific men, often employ distinct chemical terms in a very 
loose manner, and that they frequently leave the sure ground of 
ascertained facts, on which alone in chemistry opinions can be 
based, to launch into the realms of fancy and unauthorised 
assumption. Wlien it is stated in many published analyses that 
straw contains some 15 to 20 per cent, of starch, the practical 
men experienced in the fattening properties of barley-meal and 
similar starch-containing food, on comparing that experience 
with the results obtained by straw-feeding, cannot but have their 
confidence in chemistry greatly shaken. 
Again, misconceptions appear to exist in the minds of some 
of the advocates of straw as to the. amount of fat and oil which 
it contains. These, together with a small quantity of wax and 
chlorophyle, seldom exceed 2 per cent., and are often less than 
1 per cent. But it has been stated that straw contains as much 
as 20 ])er cent, of fat, from a confusion between fat and fat- 
