SOILING AND PASTURING. 43]^ 



fair to assume that the quantity of manure specified above will be 

 worth $250 ; — and if we allow $65 as the value of the manure 

 dropped upon the pasture under the pasturing system, we shall 

 have, In the two items of interest and manure, $500 return for 

 $400 expended in labor, leaving a profit of twenty-five per cent. 



This Is not, in itself, a particularly brilliant showing ; for, under 

 many circumstances, the simple item of contingencies would not 

 unfrequently consume the entire profit ; — but the following facts 

 are to be considered : first^ the man and team employed for the 

 soiling work will render valuable assistance at harvest time, and 

 whenever the work of the farm is hurried, and will regularly do a 

 considerable amount of outside work j second^ the condition of the 

 animals will be much better than when they are pastured in 

 the field ; th'ird^ the product of milk will be larger ; fourth^ the 

 chances that butter, cheese, or milk will have their taste affected 

 by wild onion and other high-flavored weeds will be reduced \ fifth ^ 

 the time wasted, and the derangement of farm-work encountered 

 in driving cattle to and from the pasture will be entirely obviated j 

 sixth^ the fertility of the farm will be immensely Increased. 



The first five of the advantages enumerated may be set down 

 as incidental benefits, which will be sufficient to off^set the con- 

 tingencies which, in their turn, may offset the 25 per cent, profit 

 on the expense. But the last, the question of increased fertility, 

 while it is an element to which it Is Impossible to attach a money 

 value, is of far greater Importance than all of the others combined. 

 Indeed, I have not the least hesitation in saying, that the fertility 

 of any average land devoted exclusively to the soiling of cattle, and 

 receiving all of the manure produced by them during the soiling 

 season, will be doubled in five years, and the value of the land will 

 be doubled as well. Whether it would double again in the next 

 five years is by no means certain, but that It would, at the end 

 of twenty years, be permanently worth for cultivation four times 

 its original price is unquestionable. The frequent cultivation, 

 usually twice In the season and sometimes three times, the im- 

 mense amount of the very best of all farm manures applied yearly 

 to the soil, and the almost entire absence of the treading of ani- 



