CHAPTER XIV. 



SOILAGE THE PREPARATION OF FEED STOCK FOODS- 

 FEEDING STUFFS CONTROL. 



I. SOILAGE. 



Soilage* means supplying forage fresh from the field to animals in 

 confinement. It was first brought to public attention in this country 

 by Josiah Quincy, whose admirable essays, printed in the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural Journal in 1820, were later gathered into a book- 

 let entitled ' ' The Soiling of Cattle, ' ' long since out of print. Soilage 

 is one of the most advanced forms of husbandry, and is especially 

 helpful where it is desirable to concentrate labor and capital in main- 

 taining farm animals on a relatively small area of land. Partial 

 soilage with dairy cows is already widely practiced in this country, 

 and exclusive soilage is growing in favor in the vicinity of large 

 cities. 



326. Soilage v. pasturage. Quincy points out six distinct advan- 

 tages from soiling: First, the saving of land; second, the saving of 

 fencing; third, the economizing of food; fourth, the better condition 

 and greater comfort of the cattle ; fifth, the greater product of milk ; 

 and sixth, the attainment of manure. 



According to this author there are six ways in which farm animals 

 destroy the articles destined for their food. First, by eating ; second, 

 by walking; third, by dunging; fourth, by staling; fifth, by lying 

 down; and sixth, by breathing on it. Of these six, the first only is 

 useful ; all the others are wasteful. 



Quincy reports his own experience where 20 cows, kept in stalls, 

 were fed green food supplied 6 times a day. They were allowed 

 exercise in an open yard. These 20 cows subsisted on the green crops 

 from 17 acres of land where 50 acres had previously been re- 

 quired. (663) 



The disadvantages of soilage are: The greater expenditure for 

 labor, seed, and fertilizer in providing the crops and for labor in 



* So far as known to the author the word ' ' soilage ' ' was used for the first 

 time in an editorial in the New York Independent of March 11, 1909, by E. P. 

 Powell, the helpful, charming writer on rural topics. It is in a class with the 

 words " leaf age, " "herbage," "forage," "pasturage," and "silage," and is 

 here adopted as a valuable accession to our all too brief distinctively agricul- 

 tural vocabulary. 



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