

FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 347 



SOILING OF CATTLE : Feeding cattle in stalls, dur- 

 ing the growing season, with grass cut and carried in to 

 them. It is particularly recommended tor Milch-cows, 

 Working-horses, and Oxen, and tor fating cattle; and Mr. 

 Young 1 also recommends that Swine be soiled in a yard tor 

 the purpose. 



The advantages of this method of husbandry have been 

 experienced in Europe; and it is strongly recommended by 

 Mr Young, by the Compilers of The Complete Grazier,' 

 and by other eminent Farmers of Greatbriuin. A commu- 

 nication of Dr. Thaer, Physician of the Electoral Court of 

 Hanover, to the English Board of Agriculture, as to the 

 result of the experience of the Baron de Bulow and others, 

 lays down the following as facts which, he says, are incon- 

 trovertible: 



1. A spot of ground which, when pastured, will yield only suffi- 

 cient food for one head, will abundantly maintain four, when kept 

 in the stable. 



2. Soiling affords at least double the quantity of manure from the 

 same number of cattle ; for the best Summer-manure is produced in 

 the stable, and carried to the fields at the most proper period of its 

 fermentation ; whereas, when spread on the meadow, and exhausted 

 by the air and sun, its power is much wasted. 



,3. Cows which are accustomed to soiling will yield much more 

 inilk, when kept in this manner; and fating cattle will increase much 

 iaster in weight. 



4. They are less subject to accidents and diseases; they are pro- 

 tected from the flies which torment them in the fields during warm 

 weather; and they do not suffer from the heat of Summer. 



There are other advantages attending this method of 

 husbandry. The trouble of driving the Milch-cows to and 

 from the pastures, three times a day, is saved; the Work- 

 ing-horses and Oxen are always at hand, so that no time i* 

 lost in going atier them ; and, what is of no small import* 

 ance, when the cattle are housed the growing crops are in 

 more safety. 



For the most profitable cultivation of the earth, it is re- 

 quisite that it should be in the highest state of fertility, 

 borne manures will enrich a soil to a certain extent; while 

 others will make it still richer. Generally speaking, barn- 

 dung is the only manure, accessible by every Farmer, with 

 which grounds may be fertilized in the highest degree. 

 But how is a sufficiency of this to be had ? 



If all vegetables were buried, while green, in the soil 

 where they grew, the manure thus afforded by them, to- 

 gether with what additions the soil receives from the air by 

 the requisite ploughmgs, would be constantly increasing its 

 fertility. The vegetable rmss produced on a farm is indeed 

 left on, but with much waste, not only in the drying of the 



