Ch. XXXIII.] SUMMER SOILING. 373 



that cattle when fed abroad are more healthy than when confined, and that 

 the cutting and carting occasion such expense as will not pay unless the 

 crop be very abundant. It is also generally thouglit that the coniftant 

 mowing, instead of pasturing, has the elfect of impoverishing the meadows : 

 this, however, is a mistake, because the soil is not exhausted if the grass be 

 cut before it has come into seed, and even if not mowed till after the seed 

 has been formed ; provided what is taken from it be returned by a propor- 

 tionate supply of manure. This, indeed, is the case in the neighbourhood 

 of London, where we find the practice constantly pursued for ihe produc- 

 tion of hay, without any diminution of their produce. On poor land, 

 liowever, or that which cannot be dunged once in three years, this must 

 be admitted, if the grass be allowed to grow till it comes into seed: 

 we are also aware that there are very many seemingly advantageous 

 practices in agriculture, which cannot be profitably employed on all 

 soils, and in all situations; but, on tolerable ground, economy will be 

 found both in the saving of the grass as well as the production of 

 manure. As to the health of the stock, there can be no doubt that they 

 will find more enjoyment, and consequently more apparent vigour, when 

 in the field than in the yard ; but the farmer's object is to put tiie greatest 

 quantity of flesh upon the beasts with the least possible cost, and that, we 

 think, he may accomplish by soiling ihem upon green food. The advan- 

 tages of using winter green crops in the house have indeed been proved 

 on every well-conducted farm on which it has been tried; and were 

 summer feeding with the natural and artificial grasses carried on with the 

 same spirit, it might be found equally profitable : they may be thus 

 enumerated, — 



1st. In the saving of the crops from the destruction by cattle wlien in 

 pasture, both by treading, staling, dunging, and lying down upon 

 them ; all tending to waste in manifest proportion to the productiveness 

 of the land. It is, besides, well known that many of the finest 

 grasses, which, when young, are highly relished by cattle, if once 

 suffered to become stalky, and get into seed, are then so much 

 disliked, that the beasts will not eat them unless compelled by sheer 

 liunger, and as in most pastures many of these grasses ripen throun-h 

 delay, their produce is lost to the grazier ; whereas, if cut down in 

 proper time, not a plant will be lost. It has also been clearly proved 

 that cattle, when fed in the house, will eat many coarse grasses and 

 weeds which they will not touch if growing in the field ; and it has 

 been also remarked, that grass which has been blown upon by other 

 animals does not become unpleasant to a different species : thus it 

 happens that even the sweepings of horse-stalls are relished by oxen ; 

 and pigs will eat the refuse of other stock clean up. 

 2ndly. In the great increase and value of the application of manure; 

 for although it is true that the same quantity is made by cattle in the 

 field, yet it is there in a great measure lost by the drying up of the 

 air, and, except in the case of sheep, can never be equally spread over 

 the land ; whereas, when deposited in the yards, it can be immediately 

 collected before any great evaporation can take place, and there, when 

 laid in heaps, it can be properly fermented. The urine can also be 

 collected in cisterns ; and, even if the straw be not used as litter to 

 increase the heap, the dung made by a beast fed in the stall upon green 

 food has been calculated, in one of the Reports of the Working-ton 

 Society, at a ton weight in a month. Sand, road-dust, the scour- 

 ings of ditches, or any other refuse, if added to the dung while in a 



