STRAW.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14141, 26 February 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

STRAW.

Thousands and 'thousands of -ions of straw disappear in smoke each year on the Canterbury Plains. There would seem to_ he nothing else for it but to bum it, because it is not wanted, and jf it is left on the ground it wastes a lot of land. There is, in post years, far more straw ahoufc-than is needed for fodder and hedding purposes, and there has not vet been found a cheap and good way o"f returning it to the ground in the shape of manure Stocks may he allowed to gradually rot down, and they may he assisted in that .process hy cattle but the cost of spreading the manure thus made, and the nuisance the heaps are, especially in cultivated "paddocks, prd vent fanners from using straw in that way, to any great extent. Artificial manures are quicker in their action and are very easy of application, and this method of manuring is preferred to that of ploughing in straw and stable manure, 'except in'the case of small jpaddocks round the homestead where root* of "various kinds are continuously • grown. It "has been pointed out again and again .that straw mores • food percentage of soil

'constituents," and that an endeavour should be. made to return the straw to the ground somehow. But the question .of .doing so cheaply has yet to bo discovered. . A landlord was so impressed with the apparent waste in. destroying straw that he made it a conditiotf of his leases that all striiw should be stacked. In. a; short time lie found his land getting- covered with useless heaps of straw, and the permission to burn straw had to be granted.

It is,_ however, quite necessary that a certain amount of straw should be spared each year, for shelter, feed, and bedding purposes. A few straw stacks in paddocks that are grassed dqwn are of) use to stock in winter time, and they also afford a certain amount of shade in hot weather. It is in winter that all kinds of stock must find thehi particularly comforting in that they provide both shelter and warm bedding'. Good clean straw also makes . good chaff, especially oat straw, although nothing is so good for horses as oat sheaves cut into chaff. .Straw is always needed at harvest. time for putting under the sheaf stacks, arid care should be taken each harvest to see that a straw stack is built near to the land that is to be cropned the succeeding season. The uses" of straw in winter are manifold, . and good oat straw seldom comes amiss. ,The .feeding values of various kinds oi straws are pretty well known from actual experience. Cattle seem to like the straw from solid straw Tuscan wheat, and I have known them prefer it to oat straw. The straw from soring whent is'supposed to be bettor than that from winter sown wheat. It is richer in digestible substances. "Oat straw possesses the highest value for feeding purposes ,and all aniffals like it.. Barley straw is also eaten with a relish, arid is fairly easy of digestion. : Horses do not like wheat so well as cows do, while the straws of leguminous plants such as peas and beam, are , better for cheep than for horses. 'ln stacking straw from the elevators while threshing is going on, the stack must be started \Va}l under" th'e elevators so that when the stack is run. uV to a good height, and the ebvn+ors lisve to bs raised th= straw will fall on tec centre of the stack. Constant tramping is needed under the eleystci-s or else the stack will settle towards tnat way. The heart must be keptwe.l up and hard, and the builder must keep, as fur away as ncssible from tkts outside. Care must be taken' not to isake the top too heavy, or tho will probably turn ever. The stack should be weighted down to prevent ■-lie wind blowing it awav, and a rakmg down on the head will straighten the straws 'so that rain will be turned easily On no .account should the elevators be. lowered on to the strck- ? tt l^ r , l . t 1S finished. Such-a nroceedin<* ; is table to push the stack over," and to . make a hole in the head