398 Composition and Nutritive Value of Straw. 
Barlei/-Strani {iiot too ripe) taken from Farm Buildings, 
October 31. 
G eneral Com position. 
Water 17-50 
Siibstances soluble in water 12'40 
Substances insoluble in water 70'10 
100-00 
Detailed Composition. 
Water 17-50 
Oil 1-17 
'Albuminous coni|)Ounds 5-37 
Mucilajre, sugar, extractive matters, ;uid cellular libre .. .. 71-44 
Mineral matters 4-52 
100-00 
^Containing nitrogen -86 
In this analysis it will be seen no less tlian 12^ per cent, of 
matters soluble in water, and containing a good deal of sugar, 
v/ere obtained, thus showing plainly to what extent the solubility, 
and with it no doubt the digestibility, of difierent samples may 
vary. 
Let it be remembered that the analyses were not made with 
picked samples, but with samples such as I found them in the rick- 
yard on our farm. The inferior and over-ripe sample was grown 
in 1860, the other in 1861. Now any farmer who, with a view 
to testing pr;ictlcally the nutritive quality of barley-straw, 
tried feeding experiments in 1860, would have found that it 
was very poor stuff, hardly fit for food ; whilst in 1861 the 
same kind of straw would have given most satisfactory results. 
Thus it happens that the same kind of straw is denounced by 
one man as only fit for the dunglieap, and by another elevated 
to almost equal rank with hay. 
In my opinion barley-straw, not too ripe, is nearly equal to 
oat-straw reaped in the same state of maturity, and superior to 
wheat. It is usually richer in albuminous compounds than wheat- 
straw, although the larger proportion of albuminous matters 
found in barley-straw is in part due to some clover and grass 
which gets mixed up with the barley-crop. Barley-straw then 
should not be wasted as litter, but given to cattle, especially 
young stock, both on account of its softer texture and its larger 
proportion of nitrogenised matter, with which young grovvfing 
stock require to be more liberally supplied than fatting beasts. 
Oat-Straw. 
A specimen of oat-straw, grown in 1860, was submitted to 
a complete analysis, and furnished the following results : — • 
