CONSUMING STRAW AND GREEN CROPS.

New Zealander, Volume XV, Issue 1358, 23 April 1859, Page 3

CONSUMING STRAW AND GREEN CROPS.

“ Should we consume our straw or tread it under foot ? and should we consume our green crops carefully or tread them down wastefully and plough thorn in ?’’—l have tried both plans extensively, and have come to decided conclusions on the subject. If I had had a doubt about it, that doubt was effectually removed by an attentive perusal of the facts so admirably collected, registered, and tested, chemically and physically, by Mr. Horsfall, in his excellent paper on Dairy Management in the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, vol. xix, p. 150, By this paper we may be assured that ail agricultural produce pays better to consume than to plough in unconsumed. It is shown unmistakably that straw has quality and value as a feeding material if properly prepared. Therefore it is as unreasonable to tread it under foot as to thread in bean-meal, oilcake, or other substances. The question of bedding is settled by the sparred floors. The cost of preparing the straw for food where steam is used forms no impediment to its profitable use as food, A ton of straw may by steam power be cut up in i-inch lengths for less than 3s. per ton. The steaming would cost very little, but even supposing the boiling or steaming was 3s. per ton, still there would be a manifest advantage in feeding out, and there would be a saving in dung heaps or carting in comparison with the ordinary process, Mr, Horsfall says:—“ In wheat straw for which 1 pay 355. per ton, I obtain for Is. 2ld, £ lb. oil and 32 lb. starch, or (the starch reduced asoil), 1I!J lbs., available for the production of fat or for respiration. I know no oilier material from which 1 can derive by purchase an equal amount of this element of food at so low a price.” Mr. Horsfall car. afford to give 355. fora ton of wheat straw or 40s. a ton for bean straw to use as food with a good profit, but if tie purchased it merely for the purpose of manure, it would not be worth more to him than !)s. 7d. per ton. For several years I steamed nearly all my straw for my animals, horses included, and was enabled to keep a very large number. Owing to a change of bailiff and alterations in my buildings rendered necessary by my increased family, I partially reverted for a couple of years to the old system of straw for bedding; I soon found that I could not keep half as much stock, ami the whole affair far less satisfactory. Tlie same remark applies to green food as to straw; any cost of preparing and cutting up is far more than compensated by the advantageous conversion of the food by the animals which consume it. A very successful farmer of my acquaintance, who keeps more than 1,500 sheep, puts down his horse-power in the field and cuts [up all his green crops into about one-eight inch length, mixing a little meal witli it. 1 understand him to say that a man and boy, will cut up enough for 300 sheep daily. In wet weather, or when the food is 100 succulent, lie mixed a little straw with it. If it were right as a principle to plough in farm produce rather than consume it, we ought to plough in our oilcake, bean and barleymeal, and hay, instead of giving it to the animals; but Mr. Horsfall has shown unmistakably that in the case of albuminous mailer it is worth 20 times more as food than as manure, and the same remark applies in degrees to straw and oilier feeding stuffs. Feeders generally would derive much advantage from a perusal of Mr. Horsfall’s excellent paper. The consumption of st aw will of course necessitate a large amount of capital in live stock, sparred floors, and buildings. Mr. M’Culloch, of Aitchncss, obtains a better result from bis stock by mixing iris food with cut straw in boiling water, as described by Mr. James Caird. For the future 1 shall avoid sowing rapecane in the soil, except were there is wireworm. Mr. Horsfall’s experiments confirm my long-continued practice of using rapccake as food for animals. By cooking the straw, Ac., we procure animal heat cheaper from coal titan from food.—J. J. Mkchi, Tiptree,