410 Composition and Nutritive Value of Straio. 
Detailed Composition. 
Water 17-75 
Oil -41 
*Albiiniiuous coin])oi;iKls 5'OG 
Muciliisc, extractive matters, and woody fibre 73-46 
Mineral matters 3-32 
100-00 
*Contaiiiing nitrogen '. '81 
This sample is somowliat liclier in albuminous compounds 
and poorer in oil than that f>rown in 1860 ; but the differ- 
ences are not great. On the other hand, both specimens agree 
in furnishing but a small proportion of matters soluble in 
water, 
I would direct particular attention to the fact, clearly brought 
out in my investigations on straw, that the crude woody fibre (the 
part insoluble in water) of bean-stalks is very little acted upon 
by dilute caustic potash and dilute sulphuric acid ; that the 
woody fibre of Avheat-straw is more easily affected by these re- 
agents than the bean-stalks ; and that barley, or oat straw, is 
acted on by the same agents in a still higher degree. We 
cannot therefore doubt, that whilst a large proportion of the 
crude woody fibre of pea, barley, and especially oat straw, is 
assimilated by ruminating animals, bean-stalks are digested to 
much less extent. 
As far as my own analytical results allow me to form an 
opinion, bean-stalks cut up by themselves into chaff, though 
useful as food when harvested in a good season, are decidedly 
inferior to any other descrij)tion of straw. If I am not mistaken, 
these analytical results fully ccmfirm the practical experience of 
the farmers in our neighbourhood, who, like most of their class, 
put a low estimate on the feeding value of bean-stalks. Bean- 
pods, it will be seen, contain a considerable proportion of albu- 
minous compounds ; they are, moreover, more tender and, no 
doul)t, nu)re easily digested than the hard stalks. When, there- 
fore cattle or sheep are allowed to pick out the pods and softer 
portions of bean-stalks, they do very well, for these parts are 
much more nutritious than the lower and harder parts. The 
preceding analysis, it should be remembered, has been made of 
the whole bean-stalks without the pods. 
Flax-Straw, 
In the neighbourhood of Hax-mills a refuse material, which is 
called " skimp," is produced in considerable quantities, which is 
nothing more or less than flax-straw chaff. A specimen, on ana- 
lysis, furnished the following results : — 
