PRACTICAL PAPERS—USE OF STRAW. 
313 
Its Use. —It is universally admitted, by the practical farm¬ 
ers of this country, that, to make our farms pay, we must 
increase the fertility of our land ; and, to do this to the best 
advantage, we must keep more stock. Here the question 
arises: How shall we do it? We must raise more or less 
grain — some will grow little or nothing else — and all must 
devote a portion of their farms to this purpose, thereby dimin¬ 
ishing the crop of hay. One remedy is to make such, use 
of the straw, as to fill the place of hay. Where special ref¬ 
erence to feeding has been kept in view in the cutting, cur¬ 
ing and stacking the grain, and in saving the straw, it will 
make a very good substitute for hay, especially when cut and 
steamed, and used with more or less ground feed. It can be 
used alone in this way, with most kinds of stock, to advantage 
—or may be alternated with hay. 
Many farmers at the west raise annually a large quantity of 
straw and other coarse fodder, and keep but little stock. They 
have already more than their cattle can use, and do not care 
to increase their herd. To such, and to many others who are 
not disposed to be to the expense of buying cutters and steam¬ 
ers, or to bestow so much care and labor on their stock, I 
would recommend the following method : Each day during the 
winter scatter a large quantity of straw in the stock yard. If 
not stacked so that it can be pitched in handily haul it in with 
a team ; regulating the amount as may be necessary to work it 
all up before warm weather. 
Any one who has not tried this process will be surprised to 
see how much of it the stock will eat. Sheep like it remark¬ 
ably well, and when spread upon the ground or put into board 
racks they will work it all over, picking out every head with 
grain in it and all the other parts they like. With straw fed 
in this way, and five acres of cut up corn, given out every day 
at the rate of one hill for each sheep, one hundred head can 
be easily wintered without hay, and most of them will be in 
good condition to turn into mutton in the spring. Thirty-five 
years ago, in western Hew York, I carried two hundred sheep 
through the winter in good condition on wheat straw, threshed 
