Show STRAW FOR FERTILITY practice of burning piles after threshing Is wasteful soils in many sections would be greatly benefited by addition of fertilizing constituents present in stalks from the time the prairies were first cultivated up to li year or so ago it MIS the ill general custom to burn the piles of straw which dotted the fields after the fall threshing in fact it is yet vet a very common practice and a very wasteful wasteful one it is oil an established fact that organic matter is essential for soil fertility no one disputes dl the fact that our prairie soils are already rich in this essential but in many sections tile the soils would be greatly benefited by the addition of the fertilizing constituents which are present in the straw of illinois gives tile the value of oat oar straw for ma mirial purposes at per ton wheat baraw is valued at 2 as per ton the same relative comparison gives the value of frebla farm manure at and barnyard ba inyard manure at 23 1 per ton anyone who destroys destroy a ton of wheat or oat straw therefore destroys more fertilizing elements than nie aie contained in the average farmyard manure the best method of handling straw is to feed it to stock and return the manure to the land thus it seres a double purpose fodder and manure when fed to horses or cattle on a maintenance ration or those doing little work oat straw is considered by hoards dairyman Dalry inan to be from one halt half to two thirds the value of good clover and timothy hay the canute froni from one ton of wheat straw is worth and that from froin a ton of oat straw is worth 23 1 thus the hie wastefulness of burning straw 1 Is 13 3 evident when sufficient clent live stock Is not kept however to we all of the straw in this way the straw can be returned directly to the land it may be spread and plowed under or med as a top dreeling on grain or Ea pasture sture |