SOILING CROPS. 77 



crops, to be used for soiling dairy cows and is firmly 

 convinced that, with ordinary care and ingenuity, the 

 crops may be quadrupled, and the profit doubled. For 

 instance a clover crop that would under ordinary circum 

 stances be ready to cut for soiling only in June has, by 

 weekly irrigating with liquid manure, been made ready 

 early in May, and by more frequent watering has been 

 cut four times before the first of July, or once every two 

 weeks after the first cutting, at a cost, for each watering, 

 of not more than 50 cents per acre. Each cutting of the 

 crop at least equalled an ordinary yield, or one ton and a 

 half of hay per acre. 



As to the value of the system as applied to market 

 gardens for the production of such crops as onions, cab 

 bages, cauliflowers, and the smaller vegetables, in which 

 flavor, tenderness, and succulence are only secured by 

 rapid growth, there can be no better proof than the suc 

 cessful cultivation of the small farms of Belgium, a coun 

 try which supports the densest population in Europe, or 

 of the market gardens in the vicinity of many French, 

 Italian and English cities and towns. In these localities 

 the solid and liquid refuse is gathered with the greatest 

 care, mixed so as to be readily used, and applied to the 

 crops, which, under this treatment, possess a size and qual 

 ity that is never equalled in this country, except by a few 

 premium vegetables that are grown in this same manner. 

 To have seen this demonstrated in the gardens and in the 

 markets of European cities and in isolated cases in this 

 country, is sufficient proof, at least, to induce American 

 cultivators to attempt to utilize in this most effective man 

 ner this most effective fertilizer. 



