SOILING AND PASTURING. 427 



important item of the supply of food. In others, it will be found 

 best to depend almost entirely upon crops raised exclusively for 

 this purpose. The principle, under all circumstances, is the same, 

 and it is a very simple one, namely, — to get the largest possible 

 quantity of nutritious, succulent food from the smallest possible 

 area of land, and to constantly re-invigorate the land with the ex- 

 cessive quantity of manure resulting from the feeding of its crops ; 

 so that, year by year, its productiveness may be increased^ and that 

 it may yearly carry a larger number of animals. 



As an illustration, rather than as a series of directions, I give 

 herewith the system which was adopted in 1869 for the soiling of 

 about thirty animals, old and young, at Ogden Farm. As the land 

 had but recently come into my possession, after years of leasing and 

 skinning, and as it is now very far from being in proper condition 

 for the best results of soiling, I make no reference to the quantity 

 of land sowed to each crop, as prudence required me to make this 

 very much larger than on any average farm would have been de- 

 sirable. I simply took care to provide for the production of more 

 than could possibly be required, adopting the practice of cutting 

 and curing for winter use whatever might be left standing on one 

 field when its successor was ready for the scythe. I have already 

 seen enough to convince me that within a very few years I shall 

 be able to feed a full-grown animal abundantly from the produce 

 of a single half-acre during the whole season from May 15 to 

 November 15 ; and it seems evident that the increased production 

 from one year to the next will be in constantly growing propor- 

 tion, the fertility of the land being improved, not only in the ratio 

 of the amount of manure applied, but also according to the 

 number of cultivations and the absence of the injurious effect 

 of the feet of animals pasturing upon it. 



The preparation consists in the sowing of winter rye early in 

 September. In exceptional seasons this rye may, with advantage, 

 be mowed over late in November, but ordinarily it had better be 

 left untouched. Early in the winter, when the ground is so 

 frozen that it will bear the treading of teams, it should be top- 

 dressed with rather coarse stable manure, which serves not only as 



