430 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



Christmas time, and if roots and cabbages have been raised in 

 sufficient quantity to furnish an important supply of food in this 

 way, the roots and cabbages themselves will after that furnish 

 an ample supply of fresh vegetable food. 



The prevailing argument against the soiling system, and one 

 which naturally has great weight with nearly all farmers, is founded 

 upon the scarcity and high price of labor. Scarcity, if the scarcity 

 exist to such an extent as to v/ithdraw the article from the market, 

 is an argument to which there is no reply ; but if it is only suffi- 

 cient to create a high price, there is very much to be said on the 

 other side of the question. If a farmer is so circumstanced that 

 he can, even for high wages, always be sure of hiring additional 

 help, and if his domestic arrangements are such that he can 

 increase his force without abusing his family, there are few good 

 farms, with properly arranged buildings, upon which soiling will 

 not pay a handsome profit. Probably in feeding twenty cows the 

 extra labor of planting, cutting, and feeding, and hauling out and 

 spreading manure, would require, during six months of the year, 

 the services of one man and one yoke of oxen. This may be set 

 down as a permanent increase of the expenses of the farm, and in 

 average regions it would probably amount to $400 each year. 

 The abundant pasturage of twenty cows would require forty acres 

 of good land, worth say $150 per acre, or $6,000. In soiling they 

 would require but ten acres of land, worth $1,500, leaving to be 

 charged to the pasturage system a capital sum of $4,500, upon 

 which the interest, at seven per cent., would be $315. The pro- 

 duct of manure would probably be at the rate of one two-horse 

 load per month for each cow, or 120 loads. It is not easy to fix 

 the value of this manure, as it must, of course, vary in different 

 localities. In Rhode Island it would be worth three dollars a 

 load, and in all of the older settled portions of New England, 

 especially in the neighborhood of good markets, it would probably 

 be worth pretty nearly that amount. As we proceed farther west, 

 the value of the manure will decrease until it finally reaches 

 the zero point. However, as it is quite certain that soiling will 

 not be adopted except where manure has a high value, it will be 



