Vtilisation of Straw as Food for Stock. 
687 
done by putting the chaff-box close up to the barn works and 
by sinking a long elevator to the chaff-box, so that the chaff is 
delivered direct into the store place instead of having to be con- 
veyed thither by hand. 
Mr. G. T. Wright, Stokes Farm, Wokingham, in the same 
volume of the Journal, said he had tried the system several 
times and found it very useful. He adds ; — 
“ It seems to me the great secret in preparing it is to have it well 
trodden down into the store place, then it comes out with a smell like new 
hay, and is much relished by stock.” 
Another method of improving straw chaff for feeding purposes, 
and of making it much more digestible as well as palatable, is 
that of steaming it. Nor is this costly on large farms having a 
fixed steam-eugine at the homestead, as the waste steam from 
the engine can usually be conveyed to some chamber or 
receptacle for chaff. This is very systematically done at the 
Royal Warwickshire Prize Farm homestead of Mr. H. E. 
Thornley, Radford Hall, Leamington, and indeed has been found 
of high utility on numerous large farms, the steaming process 
being calculated to purify and render perfectly sweet and whole- 
some hay which has been spoiled in making ; even the worst, 
although absolutely white with “ must,” has been known after 
being chaffed and steamed to be readily devoured by all kinds 
of stock. Straw chaff is invested wnth a peculiar and grateful 
aroma after undergoing the process, but the chief benefit im- 
parted is that of making it much more digestible. 
Another method, e,xtensively resorted to sometimes, of making 
straw chaff more available for stock-feeding has been that of 
throwing over it soups consisting sometimes of treacle or sugar 
dissolved in boiling water ; but the favourite soup for the purpose 
employed by the late Mr. Charles Randell, of Chadbury, was 
linseed boiled in water and afterwards thickened into a gruel by 
the addition of barley meal or maize meal. 
Mr. T. E. Dowden, the occupier of a large farm in Dorset, 
once wrote me as follows : — 
“ I have been accustomed for the past thirty years to cut a large quantity 
of my straw into chaff and throw over it a gruel composed of boiled linseed, 
ground Indian corn, or any other meal I can buy cheap. I have found 
horses, cattle, and sheep do well on it. I think it very desirable to make 
less hay, and to summer feed instead, as haymaking is a very expensive 
process.” 
Here we have a large farmer adopting this method of utilising 
straw solely that he might not be compelled to make so much 
hay in the usual course of things. Certainly, then, there is 
every probability that it might be resorted to with profit under 
