202 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



consist of a variety of grasses and other plants, over those pas 

 tures which are formed of only one grass, in the production ot 

 fat cattle and good milk cows. To any one who considers 

 with attention the experiments which have been detailed, there 

 cannot remain a doubt in the mind, that cattle, and especially 

 milk cows, in a state of confinement, would be benefited by a 

 very frequent and entire change in their food. It might not be 

 too much to say, that a daily modification in the dietary of 

 such animals would be a sound scientific prescription.&quot; 



I have deemed it important to go thus largely into the subject 

 of soiling or house feeding, because I think it will enable many 

 of the farmers in the United States, especially in the older states, 

 to keep three times the amount of stock which they now keep, 

 and to very much more advantage with regard to produce and 

 profit, and especially to the improvement. 6f their farms, than the 

 system which they now pursue. The great means of im 

 proving our farms are in the amount of stock which we keep 

 upon them, always premising, however, that that stock, to be 

 profitably kept, must be well kept ; and while every farmer loses 

 who does not keep all the stock which his farm will carry, he 

 perhaps loses still more who keeps more stock than he can keep 

 well. But every effort should be made by a good farmer to 

 increase the capacities of his farm to their utmost extent ; and 

 by the number of cattle and sheep which he can amply provide 

 for, may be determined his means of enriching his farm and 

 enlarging the profits of his husbandry. 



I foresee two objections that may be argued against the adoption 

 of the system of house feeding in the United States the one, 

 the expense of labor ; the other, the trouble of undertaking it 

 upon any extended scale. The first is a simple question of 

 profit and loss ; if its profits will be more than an equivalent for 

 its expenses, the application of any amount of labor under such 

 circumstances cannot be reasonably objected to. The trouble 

 and care which it may bring with it are no further a reasonable 

 objection to its adoption than to every other project of improve 

 ment. No good in life is obtained without its proportionate 

 price ; arid to men who live by their farms, and therefore have 

 an interest in making those farms as productive as possible, as to 

 enterprising men engaged in trade or manufactures, it resolves 



