Ch. XXXIII.] SUMMER SOILING. 377 



hurdles or the tetliers have been removed, the grouiid thus unoccupied is 

 left for the further growth of a fresh croj) ; and, as it will have been well 

 dunged by the concentration of the stock upon it, a larger aftermath may 

 be expected, and the land will be thus necessarily improved. 



THE EXPERIMENTS 



Which have been published on the comparison between soiling and grazing, 

 uniformly show a striking advantage in favour of the former — some of 

 them, indeed, stating benefits of such an extraordinary nature as hardly to 

 merit implicit faith ; yet it is singular that they almost all deal in general 

 terms, without stating those accurate particulars which can be alone relied 

 on in estimating the result *. We shall, therefore, only select a few from 

 those of the late Mr. Curwen — who, although a zealot in the cause, 

 was a gentleman of strict candour — and one from Mr. Brown of Markle, 

 which place the merits of soiling in a more moderate point of view than 

 many of its other advocates ; for we are thoroughly of opinion that any 

 exaggerated account tends rather to injure than to support the cause which 

 it is meant to espouse. 



The following are those stated at various times to the AVorkington 

 Societv, of which Mr. Curwen was president, and were conducted under his 

 own superintendence, upon his farm in Cumberland. 



The first trial was made between two kyioes. The one which was soiled 

 was ten or twelve years old, and had a number of calves ; the other, grazed, 

 was four years old, having had no calves. The advantage was, however, 

 supposed to be wholly in favour of the younger animal ; as it appears rea- 

 sonable that the period most favourable for fattening should le as soon as 

 the animal had arrived at its full growth. The experiment was commenced 

 on the 14th of May, and concluded on the 1st of October, being a period 

 of 140 days. 



The first weight of the soiled kyloe was 66 stone, and its successive 

 weights, until killed, were as follows : — 



Date.— Aug. 4, Aug, 23, Sept. 6, Oct. 1, 



Weigut. — 74 stone 77 stone. 78^ stone. 82 stone. 



{745 stone of clover. 

 2S0 „ ,, oil-cake. 

 30 „ „ chaff. 

 The experiment was therefore not solely confined to green food. 



The first weight of the grazed kyloe was 57 stone. 



Live weight on the 1st of Oct., after being fasted . . .66 , , 



BOILED KYLOE. GRAZED KYLOE. 



Carcass . . 45st. 71b. Carcass . . 36st. 81b. 



Loose fat . . .73 Loose fat . , .42 



52 10 40 10 



Supposing the hide and offal to be of equal value, the soiled kyloe is 



calculated to have paid a profit of lO^d. per day, and that of the one grazed 



of 7;^-rf. per day : that is, assuming the sale price at is. Sd. per stone, and 



the grazing to have been an acre of grass, at four guineas ; the value of clover 



* Thus, some have estimated it as being in the proportion of one to seven, if not 

 more ; but, in a trial which was reported to the Board of Agriculture, 33 head of cattle 

 were said to have been soiled from the iiOth of May, to the 1st uf October, on 171 

 statute acres, on which it is stated that it would have required 50 acres to have pastured 

 them. A similar result is mentioned by Sir John Sinclair, who states that the same 

 number of stock were soiled on 17 acres which had always previously required 50 acres. 

 Code of Agric, ord edit. N. p. 487. 



