SOILING AND PASTURING. 433 



have a loosening effect upon the bowels of the animals, which will 

 render it necessary to give them one feed each day of dry hay or 

 dried soiling fodder. In practice, there will always be more cut 

 than can be fed at once, and in this way the stock will receive 

 enough wilted food to modify the laxative tendency of that which 

 has been given to them fresh. By reference to the plan and 

 description of the barn and yards at Ogden Farm, it will be seen 

 that all of these requirements have there been provided for ; and 

 in any case in which it is deemed advisable to construct a large 

 and rather expensive barn the soiling facilities may probably be 

 attained as cheaply in the regular stalls as in any other way ; but 

 if a special shed is to be erected, as an addition to already existing 

 farm buildings, it will be sufficient to make a drive-way in front 

 of the stalls, through which the carts can be directly led, the grass 

 being thrown on the ground at the sides of the alley. The chief 

 objection to sheds built directly upon the ground, even where the 

 site is very well drained, lies in the fact that it is difficult to re- 

 move the large amount of manure without either exposing it to the 

 weather or rendering the shed untidy and inconvenient. 



To end this chapter in the spirit in which it was commenced, 

 it may be well to restate the opinion, that while soiling offers im- 

 mense advantages to the owners of small farms, near to good 

 markets, and in localities where extra labor can be obtained with- 

 out difficulty, it must work its way slowly to the favor of those 

 who are not so circumstanced ; and, taking a larger view of its 

 influence on the general agriculture of the country, it is not so 

 likely that it will be widely adopted upon large farms as it is that 

 it will make farmers content with small ones, and that it will 

 hasten the happy day when American farmers generally shall 

 realize the fact that the road to their best prosperity lies, not 

 through broad fields covered by their parchments, but through 

 deep furrows in their well-enriched land ; and when their accu- 

 mulated capital will be invested neither in bank-stocks nor on 

 bond and mortgage, nor yet in more land, but in such improve- 

 ments on that already owned as shall double its valife and quad- 

 ruple its profits. 



