CHAPTER XIV. 



SOILING AND PASTURING. 



There is one improvement in agricultural operations which, 

 although it originated many years ago, and although, in certain 

 parts of Europe, and in a very few instances in this country, it is 

 in constant and successful use, has made far less progress in win- 

 ning public favor among farmers than it was at first supposed that 

 it would. The practice referred to is that of feeding cattle during 

 the summer season entirely in the stall or in the yard, sowing spe- 

 cial crops for forage, and regularly cutting this and hauling it to 

 the feeding-place. 



The reason for the limited adoption of the system of soiling is 

 to be sought in the scarcity and consequent high price of farm 

 labor, and also in the large size of average American farms, as 

 compared with the average working force employed upon them. 

 Not only is it found expensive and annoying to a farmer, who is 

 short of help, to attend daily, and several times a day, to the feed- 

 ing of cattle ; but there are so many fields on our farms, as 

 generally arranged, which are either too large or too remote from 

 the homestead for proper cultivation, that the only resource is to 

 make use of their crops by pasturing. As a general rule, too, 

 these fields are too poor and in too low a state of cultivation to 

 produce enough fodder to make soiling advisable. 



A great deal has been said in deprecation of these circumstances, 

 and it is commonly recommended that farmers employ more labor, 

 that they bring their fields to a higher state of cultivation, and that 

 they do many other things which the best agriculture renders desir- 

 able. But I am not disposed to join the popular cry. We must take 



