372 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXIII. 



Chapter XXXIII. 

 ON THE FEEDING OF NEAT-CATTLE— (Co;j/w«ef/)—SUMxMER SOILING. 



On duly estimating the quality of land in the various districts of the 

 kinjrdom, only a very small quantity has been found capable of carrying 

 full crops, unless restored and recruited by dung at least once in four years; 

 but to obtain a supply to that extent, except in the neighbourhood of large 

 towns, has, under common farm management, almost in every instance 

 baffled the most strenuous exertions of the occupier. Lime, marl, shell- 

 sand, soap-ashes, and all the variety of mineral manures, have indeed 

 been resorted to as auxiliaries ; but their effects, tending rather to stimulate 

 and bring into action ihe inert powers of the soil than to enrich it, have in 

 many instances reduced the land to a state of great exhaustion, when their 

 operation has ceased without the support of putrescent manure. The land 

 has, indeed, been for some time enabled to produce large crops of corn, 

 but it was finally worn out, and large farms have in fact been so much 

 impoverished by an injudicious use of lime, that years must pass away 

 before they can be restored to the condition in which they were originally ; 

 whereas, had a full supply of vegetable substances been at hand for tlie 

 production of dung, when these stimulants were in action, the issue would 

 have been altogether different. 



A due reflection upon these facts should induce every farmer to cultivate 

 those crops which are not only the most consistent with his own interest in 

 the first instance, but also the best calculated to afford the greatest return 

 to the soil ; and experience has thus proved the necessity of adopting the 

 alternate system of husbandry, which forms the groundwork of its pros- 

 perity upon light lands. Still, however, it is probable that the most 

 judicious application of those crops to the consumption of live stock is only 

 imperfectly understood ; for although, throughout the whole of Flanders, 

 a great })ortion of the cattle are kept during the entire summer in the 

 house, and there fed upon cut grass, or other green food, as the more 

 profitable mode, and the same plan has been here partially followed by 

 some intelligent farmers, yet it has been only lately, through the efforts of 

 the late Mr. Curwen, and a few other eminent agriculturists, that the prac- 

 tice of soiling has been introduced into this country. In Ireland it is 

 scarcely known : Mr. Blacker, however, a very experienced Irish land- 

 agent, who has lately written " on the Improvement and Cultivation of 

 small Farms," stronsilv advocates the svstem, and recommends the raising 

 of turnips and mangel-wurzel for house-feeding and increasing the stock of 

 cattle, to the utmost extent of which the plan is susceptible*. 



SOILING 



Is applied generally to every artificial grass, as well as to some of the corn 

 crops when in a green state, and some persons have of late beneficially 

 followed the Flemish plan of repeatedly mowing the meadow grass, while 

 young, for the feeding of their cows. The objections to the cutting of 

 grass, to be used at home in its green state, arise from the prevalent idea 



* He thus expresses himself — " Settiuo^ it down for certain tliat you ought to have at 

 least one cow I'or every tliree acres of arable land, as being the smallest stock which 

 will enable you to keep the ground in heart — if this be not kept in view from the very- 

 outset, you will find that you cannot manure the one-fourth of your farm every year, and 

 you will therefore be thrown out of the rotation : the land will be exliausted and left to 

 rest as formerly ; and as it gets poor, you will get poor yourselves." 



