SOILING, OR HOUSE FEEDING. 189 



it ; but the subject is of so great importance, that I may be 

 allowed to reiterate my admonitions. Though they cannot tell 

 their complaints, these are not the less severely felt ; and the 

 animal constitution is liable to the same irregularities within, and 

 to the same injurious influences from without, in one case as in 

 another, in the brute as in the human animal. 



I have seen, as I have already remarked, several instances of 

 soiling in this country ; but, with the exception of large milk 

 establishments in the towns, and one or two large farms in the 

 country, they have been upon rather a restricted scale. I have 

 said that horses are almost universally soiled ; the same may be 

 said of much of the fat stock, which is in preparation for an 

 early market, and especially for the agricultural shows. Fatting- 

 sheep, in England, are generally folded, and in most cases the 

 feed is cut or pulled for them, and they are fed from mangers or 

 troughs. Other stock is generally grazed, as with us. Indeed, 

 in parts of the country, especially in Scotland and Ireland, there 

 is a large portion of the country which does not admit of, or 

 would not pay the expense of, cultivation, and this is devoted to 

 grazing, as the only beneficial use to which it can be applied. 



I am bound to say that soiling is not universally approved. 

 Mr. Stephens, the eminent author of the Book of the Farm, 

 says that he has tried twice the experiment of soiling his horses, 

 but failed in both cases ; at one time for want of cutting grass, 

 the second cutting having entirely failed that year ; and the 

 other time, for want of straw for litter, until the arrival of the 

 new crop.* The latter reason seems to me about as appropriate 

 and valid an objection against soiling, as it would be to have 

 said that his experiment of soiling failed because he had no 

 stalls in which to tie his cattle, and no troughs from which to 

 feed them. Litter is indispensable in order to reap from soiling 

 all the advantages, which it may afford in the production of 

 manure ; but it is difficult to understand with what propriety 

 it can be objected to the practice of soiling, that it fails, when 

 that failure is not in any way the fault of the system, but 

 grows out of the deficiency or neglect of him who makes the 

 experiment. The former objection has a good deal of force ; 

 and it would be great imprudence or improvidence to under- 



* Book of the Farm, vol. iii. p. 851. 



