There are five kinds of straw used as fodder. [Of their relative value for food see page 199.] Straw, however, is little used here. In many parts of Europe, wheat, barley, or rye straw forms the whole or greater part of the dried herbage, hay being almost unknown. In some of the towns, wheat and oat straw are occasionally given to carthorses, and in some cases to coaching-horses. In the country both white and black straw are in common use as winter fodder for the farm-horses. It is very probable tha wheat-straw, and perhaps some of the others, may soon be used much more extensively than they are at present. Good straw is certainly better than bad hay, and possibly, by in creasing the allowance of grain, and cutting the straw, hay might be almost entirely dispensed with. Though containing much less nutriment, it still contains some, and it serves quite as well as hay to divide the grain and give it a wholesome size. It must be understood that food ought to possess bulk proportioned in some degree to the capacity of the digestive organs. Nutriment can be given in a very concentrated state, yet it is not proper to condense it beyond a certain point.

Grain alone will give all the nourishment which any horse can need, but he must also have some fodder to give bulk to the grain, though it need not of necessity yield much nutriment. Straw, therefore, may often be used where hay is used. This has been proved very fairly in this country. The late Mr Peter Mein, of Glasgow, kept his coaching-horses in excellent order for nearly eight months, without a single stalk of hay. During dear hay seasons it is the custom with many large owners, to make straw form part of the fodder. Wheat-straw is preferred, but few object to that of the oat.

But when horses are living chiefly on hay, as many farm-horses do, during part of the winter, it must not be supposed that an equal quantity, or indeed any quantity of straw, will supply the place of that hay. The stomach and bowels will hardly hold hay enough to nourish even an idle horse, and as straw yields less nutriment in proportion to its bulk, enough can not be eaten to furnish the nutriment required. The deficiency must be made up by roots or grain.

When much straw is used, part or the whole ought to be cut into chaff. It is laborious work to masticate it all, and in time it will tell upon the teeth, which in old horses are often worn to the gums, even by hay and grain.

I had written thus far on straw in previous editions of this work. Yet Nimrod, in the "Veterinarian," for 1839, at page 330, wishes "Mr. Stewart had said something of wheaten straw, the use of which for certain work, he is inclined to think well of." That I had said something may be seen by consulting the first and second editions, both published before 1839. Why Nimrod should have a wish implying that I had omitted to notice this article, must be explained by the gentleman himself.

Nimrod's residence in France seems to have given him a very favorable opinion of wheat straw. He says: " I am not only convinced that to the fact of horses in France eating as much straw as hay, is to be attributed their generally healthy condition, and also the non-necessity for physic, even to those who work hard and eat much grain (post and diligence horses for example); but I was informed by Lord Henry Seymour, at Paris, last March twelvemonth, that his racehorses, then of course doing good work, were eating nothing but wheaten straw and grain." - P. 514.

It need not be supposed, from what Nimrod or any other body says, that straw is, in any respect, better for horses than good hay. When straw is given instead of hay, the allowance of grain must be enlarged, and it will depend upon the relative cost of all the three, which of them should be given. It is not every horse, however, that will eat straw.

Bean-straw is tough and woody, and horses soon get tired of it. But I am persuaded that it might be advantageously made into tea. Bean-straw tea is much esteemed as a drink for milch-cows, and if not found equally good for horses, no harm can be done by trying it. Pea-straw also makes very good tea, but the straw itself can be entirely consumed as fodder. The white straws seem to make a very weak infusion. All the kinds of straw soon grow sapless and brittle. They should be fresh.