Utilisation of Straw as Food for StocJf. 
685 
they calve and are expected to yield productively they lose a considerable 
time, and that perhaps the most valuable, in getting again into flesh before 
they give their usual quantity of milk ; but if they have been well and suf- 
ficiently wintered they are half summered and yield at once adequately. 
For young cattle it is still less management, for their growth is stunted 
and they never recover it.” 
The strawyard feeding of dairy cows and young cattle has 
ever since been commonly practised, and this enlightened 
teaching of Arthur Young is, to some extent, still necessary to 
be enforced, though all intelligent farm occupiers who have 
studied the question give regularly to their animals, when feed- 
ing in strawyards, oilcake, or some other auxiliary food of a 
richer nature, in small quantities, just sufficient to keep them 
in proper condition. Part of the benefit is derived from the 
manure being rendered of much greater value. 
Throughout the last half-century straw has extensively been 
utilised in cattle-feeding, especially by the best farmers, whose 
aim has been to keep well and remuneratively in winter the 
largest stocks of cattle and sheep the fodder of the farm could 
sustain with a reasonable addition of auxiliary foods. The late 
Dr. Voelcker once affirmed that “ it is undoubtedly a fact that 
some practical feeders are in possession of the secret of convert- 
ing considerable quantities of straw into beef.” The late Mr. 
John Coleman in 1877 stated that there were cases within his 
knowledge in which the largest part of the straw grown on 
farms was passed through the bodies of animals, and he was him- 
self at that very period superintending management of this nature 
on Lord Wenlock’s home farm at Escrick, Yorks. The farm 
was in extent 220 acres of arable and 430 of pasture. More 
than 100 head of cattle and 400 sheep w'ere kept by the aid of 
the chaff-cutter and pulper, and with the addition of artificial 
food. Mr. Coleman (in this Journal, Vol. XIII., 2nd series, 1877) 
said : “ I am quite certain that, by the proper use of chopped 
straw and pulped roots, from one-third to one-fourth more cattle 
can be kept upon a given area of land.” 
The admixture of root pulp with straw chaff here adverted 
to by Mr. Coleman has at times been very much practised to 
economise roots when these are scarce after years of partial 
turnip failure. The root pulp and chaff after being well inter- 
mixed are allowed to remain in heaps for some time before 
being used, forty-eight hours not being considered too long, so 
that the considerable fermentation induced might cause a 
softening and partial cooking of the straw, thereby rendering it 
far more digestible. In winter dairying those who do not pro- 
vide silage find it most economical to utilise mangel-wurzel by 
