350 STRANGURY. 
and when the symptoms relax and the appetite 
returns, abundant nourishment may be given, 
accompanied, in cases of great debility, with 
malt mashes and tonic medicines. Bleeding, in 
any of the active stages of the disease, is impro- 
per, and may be mischievous except when in- 
flammatory action is indicated at all in the lungs 
or highly in the approaches to them; and then 
it becomes requisite for the reducing of the in- 
flammation. “The period of strangles,” says 
Mr. Castley, “is often a much more trying and 
critical time for young horses than most people 
| seem to be aware of; and when colts get well 
| over this complaint, they generally begin to 
thrive and improve in a remarkable manner, or 
there is sometimes a great change for the worse ; 
in fact, it seems to affect some decided constitu- 
tional change in the animal.” 
STRANGURY. Inflammation or spasmodic 
affection of the neck of the bladder. It some- 
times arises in the horse from blistering for other 
and more serious inflammations; and when it 
| occurs, the horse should receive a dose of Epsom 
salt, a plentiful supply of linseed tea, and a dose 
every six hours of opium and camphor made up 
with treacle and linseed meal into a ball. See 
the article INFLAMMATION. 
STRANV ASIA. A genus of exotic ligneous 
plants, of the rosaceous order. The grey-leaved 
species, S. glaucescens, is a hardy, evergreen, small 
tree, of about 20 feet in height, carrying white 
flowers in June; and was introduced to Britain 
about 20 years ago from Nepaul; and thrives in 
any common soil, and is propagated by budding. 
It is regarded by some botanists as a hawthorn. 
STRAPWORT, — botanically Corrigiola. A 
genus of ornamental, trailing, herbaceous plants, 
of the purslane family.—The sand or shore strap- 
wort, Oorrigiola littoralis, grows wild on the 
southern coasts of England. Its root is annual, 
small, and tapering; its stems are flaccid, not 
much branched, and several inches long, and 
spread in every direction on the ground; its 
leaves are scattered, simple, linear-lanceolate, 
obtuse, glaucous, and somewhat fleshy ; and its 
flowers grow in terminal or lateral subdivided or 
interrupted clusters, and are numerous and often 
sessile, and have a white, pearly colour, and 
bloom in July and August.—The Cape and the 
orpine-leaved strapworts, the former an annual 
from the Cape of Good Hope, and the latter a 
perennial from the South of Europe, closely re- 
semble the indigenous species in at once flower, 
habit, and treatment; and all are propagated 
from seeds on the open border, in the manner of 
| ordinary hardy annuals. 
STRATH. A valley flanked by mountains. 
| The word is Scottish ; and is applied in some in- 
stances to a glen and in others to a plain,—in 
some to a single valley traversed by a stream, 
and in others to a chain or series of valleys with- 
out any reference to particular water-courses. 
STRATIOTES. See Warer-Sonpier. 
STRAW. 
STRATUM. See Gxronoey. 
STRAW. The dried culms of the cereal grasses, 
—and, by a loose or extended use of the word, the 
succulent culms of the cereal grasses, either the 
dried or the succulent stems of sarcolobous field 
leguminous plants, and either the dried or the 
succulent stems of some of the large, grass-like, 
non-gramineous forage plants. Straw, in the 
proper sense, is employed mainly and largely for 
litter and fodder, and very considerably for 
thatching; and straw in the extended sense, is 
employed mainly and in various ways for fodder ; 
and they are largely discussed, both in articles on 
their aggregate uses, and in the articles on the 
several crops which produce them. See, in par- 
ticular, the articles Fopprr, Foop or ANIMALS, 
Freping or ANIMALS, CHArr, Hauim, Livrer, 
Hay, Sortine, Horse, Wueat, Oat, Baruey, and 
RYE. 
The relative value of different species of straw 
for fodder is greatly controlled by the character 
of the soils on which they are grown, by the 
stage of growth or of ripeness at which they are 
reaped, by the condition in which they are har- 
vested and kept, by the degree of freshness or of 
age at which they are used, and by the amount 
and kind of preparation which they undergo. 
“Tt is thought,” says the Useful Knowledge So- 
ciety’s Treatise on British Husbandry, “ that, 
when grown on gravelly or rich clay soils, straw 
is more valuable as fodder than when it is reared 
on black deep loam or cold moorish land; and it 
is now generally admitted that it possesses more 
succulence when the corn is rather green than 
when it is in a riper state. 
many that the straw of wheat is the most nutri- 
tive; it certainly makes the strongest manure, 
and is thought to be the best for either steaming | 
or cutting into chaff; although that of oats is 
usually preferred as more soft and more palatable 
to cattle. That of barley is so poor and brittle, 
that it is only employed as litter; it is extremely 
difficult to save it in any tolerable degree of or- 
der; and though it has been said to possess 
more nutriment than that of wheat, yet, when 
the crop is fully ripe, the ears break off in hand- 
ling, which has been contended as sufficient proof 
that it contains but very little sap. Rye-straw 
is so scarce in all except the northern counties 
and some parts of Wales, and is in such demand 
for thatching, brick-making, &c., that it is but 
seldom applied to other uses.” Straw of any 
species in a well-harvested and perfectly fresh 
and sweet condition is greatly better than straw 
of the same species in an ill-stored or untidy or 
too old or somewhat musty state; straw cut 
into small pieces in the form of what is tech- 
nically called chaff is greatly better than straw 
in its entire length; cut straw in mixture with 
some more nutritious substances is greatly better 
than cut straw alone or in mixture with com- 
paratively innutritious substances; anda wiitaes 
of cut straw and more nutritious substances in a 
It is supposed by | 
