402 SOILING CATTLE. 



Of course, this would not hold good on ordinary land 

 which had been in no way prepared for the practice, but 

 after one or two years' preparation by judicious use of 

 the manure made by the animals fed, and by the aid of 

 proper management, any fair land will support, on the sys- 

 tem of soiling, four times as much stock as if they grazed 

 upon it constantly and voided upon it all of their manure. 



It was for a long time questioned, and very naturally 

 too, whether cattle would remain in good health if they 

 were deprived of the exercise which they necessarily take 

 in getting their own food in the fields ; but ample experi- 

 ence has proved that, if they are allowed good yards in. 

 which to exercise for a short time, once or twice a day, they 

 keep in better condition and are less liable to disease than 

 when they are exposed to the various changes of the weather 

 in the fields. 



It is also sometimes objected that this treatment is an 

 unnatural or an artificial one. To this the reply is that our 

 domestic animals are artificial productions. In nature we 

 see no working oxen, and no cows give during the whole 

 year a tenth part of the quantity of milk that cows have 

 been forced to give in a state of domestication. 



With the writer, the soiling of cattle is not a matter of 

 theory. He has adopted the system on his own farm, and 

 has sufficient evidence in his own practice of its substantial 

 advantages. 



Perhaps the most practical way to give an idea of the 



