A truss is a tight bundle of

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry wikt:stalk, stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the crop yield, yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, ry ...

. It would usually be

cuboid In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron with quadrilateral faces, meaning it is a polyhedron with six Face (geometry), faces; it has eight Vertex (geometry), vertices and twelve Edge (geometry), edges. A ''rectangular cuboid'' (sometimes also calle ...

, for storage or shipping, and would either be harvested into such bundles or cut from a large rick.

Markets and law

Hay and straw were important commodities in the pre-industrial era. Hay was required as

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...

for animals, especially horses, and straw was used for a variety of purposes including

bedding Bedding, also called bedclothes or bed linen, is the materials laid above the mattress of a bed for hygiene, warmth, protection of the mattress, and decorative effect. Bedding is the removable and washable portion of a human sleeping environment ...

. In London, there were established markets for hay at Smithfield,

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

and by the village of

Charing Charing () is a village and civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, in south-east England. It includes the settlements of Charing Heath and Westwell Leacon. It is located at the foot of the North Downs and reaches up to the escarpment ...

, which is still now called the Haymarket. The weight of trusses was regulated by law and statutes were passed in the reigns of

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily () * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg (1817–1890) N ...

and

Mary II Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland with her husband, King William III and II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. Sh ...

, George II and

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

. The latter act, the Hay and Straw Act 1796 ( 36 Geo. 3. c. 88), established the weights as follows: In summary then, the standard weights of a truss were: * new hay, 60

pound Pound or Pounds may refer to: Units * Pound (currency), various units of currency * Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom * Pound (mass), a unit of mass * Pound (force), a unit of force * Rail pound, in rail profile * A bas ...

s * old hay, 56 pounds * straw, 36 pounds and 36 trusses made up a load.

Trussing

A detailed description was provided in ''British Husbandry'', sponsored by the

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) was founded in London in 1826, mainly at the instigation of Whig MP Henry Brougham, with the object of publishing information to people who were unable to obtain a formal education or who ...

Carriage

The London hay-

cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

may have been purpose-made to carry a load of 36 trusses. John French Burke wrote in 1834,

Consumption

British army regulations in 1799 specified standard rations of trusses. These were one truss of straw for each two soldiers, to stuff their

palliasse A tick mattress, bed tick or tick is a large bag made of strong, stiff, tightly-woven material ( ticking). This is then filled to make a mattress, with material such as straw, chaff, horsehair, coarse wool or down feathers,Dictionnaire de l'a ...

s. Half a truss was provided after sixteen days to refresh this and the whole was then changed after 32 days. Five trusses of straw were provided for each company every sixteen days for the batmen and washerwomen, who did not have palliasses. Thirty trusses of straw were provided per company when they took the field to thatch the huts of the washerwomen.

Notes

References

{{reflist Customary units of measurement Units of mass