PRODUCTION OF CATTLE FOODS 277 



grazing in August and September of such a quality as to 

 maintain a satisfactory flow of milk. In many instances, 

 moreover, farmers owning a limited area of high-priced 

 tillable land wish to keep the maximum number of ani- 

 mals an acre, and to do this they must cultivate soiling- 

 crops for stable feeding. 



It is no longer a debatable question, whether or not 

 soiling is profitable under most conditions. Unlimited 

 testimony can be furnished showing the great gain from 

 every point of view of even partial soiling as an amend- 

 ment to the pasture. Whether soiling should be sub- 

 stituted entirely for grazing is a business matter which 

 should be decided according to the conditions involved. 



373. Conditions favorable to soiling. New England 

 farmers owning upland rocky pastures in which grow 

 native grasses of the highest quality for any class of 

 animals could not widely discard them. Such land gen- 

 erally absorbs but little capital, and the labor of supply- 

 ing food by this method is reduced to a minimum. The 

 case is different with high-priced, easily tilled land located 

 near good markets. These conditions call for intensive 

 farming, and grazing animals on permanent pastures is 

 not a part of intensive practice. Under such circum- 

 stances the wisdom of a soiling system is clearly indicated. 



374. The economy of soiling-crops. In the first 

 place, much more food is produced on a unit of area by 

 soiling than by pasturage. Armsby found that two 

 soiling-crops in one season, for instance rye followed by 

 corn, yielded five times as much digestible organic matter 

 as pasture sod, when the whole growth on the latter was 

 plucked without waste, the quantities being, respectively, 

 5,845 and 1,125 pounds. It is variously estimated from 

 observations in practice that three to five times as many 



