aturation, probably for the following reasons:--Firstly, because
oats are more liable to shed their seed; secondly, because there is
a greater breadth of that crop to be reaped, which necessitates an
early beginning; and, lastly, because most farmers know that over-ripe
oat-straw is worth but little for feeding purposes, as compared with
the greenish-yellow article.

As compared with white turnips, the nutritive value of oat-straw stands
very high, for whilst the former contains but little more than 1 per
cent. of flesh-formers, and less than 5 per cent. of fat-formers, the
latter includes about 4 per cent. of flesh-formers, and 13 per cent. of
fat-formers. Again, whilst the amount of woody fibre in turnips is only
about 3 per cent., that substance constitutes no less than 60 per cent.
of oat-straw. In comparison with hay--taking into consideration the
prices of both articles--oat-straw also stands high, as will be seen
by comparing the following analyses of common meadow hay with that of
properly harvested straw:--

Meadow Hay. Oat Straw.

Water 14.61 14.00
Flesh-forming constituents 8.44 6.17
Respiratory and fatty matters 43.63 15.63
Woody fibre 27.16 59.96
Mineral matter (ash) 6.16 4.24
------ ------
100.00 100.00

Woody fibre is as abundant a constituent of the straw of the cereals
as starch is of their seeds, and if the two substances were equally
digestible, straw would be a very valuable food--superior even to the
potato. At one time it was the general belief that woody fibre was
incapable of contributing in the slightest degree to the nutrition of
animals, but the results of recent investigations prove that it is, to a
certain extent, digestible. In the summer of 1859 two German chemists,
Stoeckhardt and Sussdorf, made a series of experiments, with the view
of ascertaining whether or not the cellulose[30] of the food of the
sheep is assimilated by that animal. The results of this inquiry are of
importance, seeing that they clearly prove that even the hardest kind of
cellulose--_sclerogen_, in fact--is capable of being assimilated by the
Ruminants. The animals selected were two wethers, aged resp