316 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



could be kept on forty rods, or one-quarter of an acre of ground. 

 Let it be premised that the soil is a strong clay, put in fine con- 

 dition after twenty years of bad farming the crop heavy clover, 

 just coming into blossom. On the first experiment, seven cows 

 and four horses, equal to twelve cows, were fed fifteen days. 

 On the second experiment, six cows and five horses were fed 

 fourteen days, and on the third, eleven cows were fed sixteen 

 days ; in each case upon one cutting of clover, on forty rods of 

 ground. It will be perceived, that in each instance, it was equal 

 to keeping one cow from one hundred and sixty-eight to one 

 hundred and eighty days, or about equivalent to the pasturing 

 season for one cow. It is admitted that these crops were much 

 above an average, and that forty rods of ground could not be 

 regarded as a sufficient allowance to a cow for a season, unless 

 the land is in fine condition, and the crop a maximum.* 



"Another and larger experiment was tried in the summer of 

 1862, when twenty steers, four years old, seven cows and six 

 work horses, equal to thirty -five cows, were soiled from the 20th 

 of May to the 1st of December. No measurement of the exact 

 amount of land cut for soiling, was made, but one hundred acres 

 were occupied as follows: Ninety acres in timothy grass, five 

 acres in timothy and clover, two acres in clover, one acre in oats, 

 and two acres in sown corn. Only about four acres of this hun- 

 dred were in extra condition, and fifty in poor condition. First, 

 the two acres of clover were fed, then the five acres of clover 

 and timothy, next the acre of oats, then timothy until it became 

 too ripe, next the two acres of corn, and lastly, the second and 

 third cuttings of clover. In short, they were fed from this hun- 

 dred acres, for six months and ten days, with a surplus of sixtv- 

 five tons of hay, which were sold for $972, Now, had these 

 animals been pastured upon this hundred acres, nothing would 



* On the best of Western grazing lands, if an acre will feed a bullock through the 

 season, it is considered as remarkably good. L. F. A. 



