SOILING AND PASTURING. 421 



receive at each feeding exactly the quantity that they will entirely 

 consume, and all beyond this may be reserved for future use ; while 

 the small amount of rejected herbage will be ordinarily only so 

 much as will be consumed with advantage by swine. 



With regard to the better condition and greater comfort of the cattle^ 

 there is a sentimental idea that the advantage lies on the side of 

 the pasturing ; and the most prevalent argument advanced in this 

 connection is, that it is the natural way for animals to obtain 

 their food. That it is natural is undoubtedly true j and, for 

 animals in a state of nature, grazing, being the only means of 

 subsistence possible, is, of course, the best means. But when we 

 withdraw animals entirely from a state of nature, and reduce them, 

 or elevate them, to such an artificial condition as shall cause them 

 best to subserve our ends, there is no reason why unnatural means 

 may not be with advantage adopted, provided they result in no 

 detriment to the animals' health, comfort, or condition The 

 amount of exercise required to maintain the health of any domes- 

 tic animal is not great, and if we observe the conduct of cows at 

 pasture we shall see that under the most favorable circumstances 

 they take only so much exercise as is necessary to enable them 

 to fill their stomachs with the choicest grasses within their reach, 

 and that, being filled, they invariably remain quiet until, after 

 rumination is completed, they need food again. On poor pastures, 

 where a half-starved cow is obliged to walk nearly the whole day 

 to pick up a scanty subsistence, there is no doubt that one of the 

 principal causes of her poor condition is to be sought in the 

 fact that she has been obliged to take more than the proper 

 amount of exercise. 



Ample experience, the world over, has clearly demonstrated 

 the fact, that, with proper facilities for exercising in the yard, 

 cattle, fed regularly with nutritious food only in their stalls, are 

 in better condition, and live longer in good health, than do those 

 who are exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather, and to the 

 more precarious subsistence that natural herbage usually affords. 

 Mr. Quincy refers to the assertion of a writer on soiling, to the 

 effect that, during his experience with a large herd, kept for 



