Composition and Nutritive Value of Straii\ 
407 
Totash 11-78 
Soda G'aS 
Limo 40-34 
M.asjiiosia 8-30 
Oxide of iron 1-03 
riiosplioric acid 8-2G 
Sulphuric acid G-76 
Silica 10-60 
Chloride of sodium ()-32 
100-00 
The asli of pea-straw difTcrs mainly from the ashes of oats, 
wheat, or barh'V straw by containing much less silica, and more 
lime and phosphoric acid. 
Pea-straw, it will be seen, is richer in oil and albuminous or 
flesh-forming matters than the straw of the cereal crops ; and as it 
moreover contains less indigestible woody fibre, and when pro- 
perly harvested is tender and much liked by sheep and cattle, 
it is much preferable as a feeding material. Good pea-straw 
indeed is a capital article of food for ewes at the lambing season, 
for it contains almost as much flesh-forming matter as meadow- 
hav, and, under favourable circumstances, a large proportion of 
sugar and mucilage. The preceding analysis agrees tolerably 
well with the following results, obtained in analysing a specimen 
of pea-straw : — 
Pea-straw taken from the Farm-builclinfjs, Octoler Slst, 1861. 
General Composition. 
Water 17-40 
Substances soluble in water 11*77 
Substances insoluble in water 70-83 
100-00 
Detailed Composition. 
Water 17-40 
Oil 1-57 
*Albuminous compounds 6-44 
Gmn, sugar, and crude cellular and woody filra ' 68-63 
Mineral matters 5-96 
100-00 
♦Containing nitrogen 1-03 
This specimen, it will be seen, contains less oil and nitrogenised 
matter than that grown in 1860, to which it is decidedly superior 
in feeding qualities. 
'^On the whole pea-haulm is the most nutritious of all kinds of 
straw. Its superiority over bean-straw is admitted by all prac- 
tical farmers ; although, according to an analysis by Professor 
Way, bean-straw would appear greatly to surpass pea-straw, and 
to approximate to the value of hav, if not to surpass it. 
