400 
Composition and Nutritive Value of Straw. 
indigestible. It may be safely inferred from this that oat-straw 
is assimilated by animals to a larger extent than wheat-straw ; 
and as it contains moreover more sugar and mucilage than the 
latter, and as much oil and albuminous matter, the specimen 
analysed by me is decidedly more nutritious than the sample of 
wheat-straw which I analysed. In all probability the difference 
is due to the fact that oats, on account of the readiness with 
which they shed the grain, are generally reaped in a less matured 
condition than wheat. 
Another sample of oat-straw, grown in 1861, submitted to a 
less complete analysis, furnished the following results : — 
Oat-straw from Fa rm-huildings. 
General Composition. 
Water 19-50 
Substances soluble in water 10'85 
Substances insoluble in water GS)'Qo 
100-00 
Detailed Composition. 
AVater l!)-50 
Oil 1-54 
*Proteiu compounds 2-75 
Mucilage, sugar, cellular fibre, Sec 71-39 
Mineral matters (ash) 4-82 
100-00 
*Containing nitrogen -44 
These results agree perfectly Avith the preceding in regard to 
the proportion of oil and albuminous matter, and tolerably well 
in the amount of substances soluble in water. 
Having found that the nutritive properties of straw are greatly 
affected by the state of maturity at which the crop is harvested, 
and come to the conclusion that it is very desirable to reap oats 
in a somewhat green condition, I took an opportunity carefully 
to investigate the nature of the differences Avhich are exhibited 
by oat-straw in a green, in a fairly ripe, and in an over-ripe 
condition. In 1860 it will be remembered that our grain crops 
ripened rather unequally. This circumstance enabled me to 
examine oat-straw in both a green and a fairly ripe condition. 
In that year Mr. Coleman, Professor of Agriculture in the Royal 
Agricultural College, Cirencester, thought it desirable to begin 
the oat-harvest, whilst the straw was yet somewhat green, inas- 
much as the oat-field was large, and this crop, when too ripe, 
is very apt to shed its seed. This field Avas reaped on the 
20th of August, and on that day I selected some of the oats in 
a still somewhat green condition, and likewise some in a fairly 
ripe state. In the green oat-stiaw, examined diiectly after the 
