Story ‘makes hay’ of house construction

Reading with interest your story in the Aug. 12 issue on straw-bale house construction. I was startled to see "straw is the byproduct farmers get when they harvest hay."

Straw is the byproduct of threshed grains such as wheat, rye and oats. Hay is the grasses planted, dried and stored for animals’ winter food and has no byproduct.

Then, your headline speaking of a "hay" day for house construction compounds the error. Having read that incorrect statement leads me to wonder if other confidently made statements of which I have no knowledge may also be inaccurate.

Eloine J. Dunlap

North Brunswick