Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — How to Stack the Straw. [ARTICLE]

How to Stack the Straw.

The straw-stack has now come to occupy a prominent position upon every farm, entirely unlike the practice of early days, when the straw was dragged into an open space and burned, the farmer considering .it an unfortunate occurrence if a passing shower should intercept him before the torch was applied. The importance of the straw as valuable food, for bedding and for the protection it affords to stock during winter makes it necessary to know how to stack it in the best manner. Where the straw is not very abundant it is better tb build a pen a tew feet in height as a protection to the sides, and build the stack within it, spreading the sides out sufficiently to sustain a large or small stack, as is desired. To insure a thorough shedding of water it is necessary to keep the middle of the stack full, so that the straw shall all slope downward toward the outside. The settling of straw-stacks is so great, and they take in water sO rapidly, that it is seldom they are built high enough to prevent a large percentage of the straw being spoiled by heavy rains. Oat straw sheds water better than the straw of most other grains, and should be put on top of the stack, unless something better in the form of slough grass is used instead. With the straw-carriers now used upon threshing-machines the straw is elevated to the proper height, and is stacked with much less labor than formerly. The chaff, the most valuable part for food, is also carried with it ana saved. After it answers all the purposes for which it is required the refuse straw makes a large quantity of excellent manure which may be applied to the soil to advantage for all kinds of crops; so that the former practice of burning the straw is greatly improved upon by modern practices.—Western Hural. " . ' • A learned and practical savant, Mr. Dalbray, began in 1840 in the Garden of Plants, at Paris, a public course of lectures op arboriculture. These lectures were illustrated by experiments bn the ground, and were largely attended by land-owners and nurserymen from every part of France. In three years old routine systems of culture were done away with, and that of the vine especially became so much improved that its products soon formed by far the largest item in the resources of thaj country.— London Garden. An Eastern lecturer described steam in his lecture to be water in an extraordinary state of perspiration.