52 BRITISH DAIRYING. 



nay, a dozen will do less, for there are twelve cows' carcasses to 

 maintain instead of ten. But if any dairy farmer prefers to 

 stock his pasture land to its full capacity, and run the risk of a 

 non-grassy season, he will see the wisdom of providing a suc- 

 cession of green crops for " soiling " in the summer and autumn 

 months. If it so happen that the cows can do without this 

 supplementary food, it may be made into hay or silage. 



The general green crop for early spring use is a mixture of win- 

 ter rye or oats and winter vetches, sown in September j for early 

 summer use, ordinary rye or oats and vetches, sown as early as 

 possible in the spring, on well-tilled and well-manured land; 

 for late summer use, the same kind of crop, sown later, and at 

 successive periods of two or three weeks ; and for autumn use, 

 late oats and vetches, and also cabbages and turnips to supple- 

 ment the aftermath of the meadows. On warm and good land 

 I fancy that green maize would provide excellent food for soil- 

 ing, in suitable places, and in a hot summer it would perhaps 

 grow into a heavier crop than any other forage plant. 



Crops and Pasture. 



In cases where arable dairy farming is followed in a plenary 

 sense, there is of course no pasture land at all, save perhaps a 

 paddock in which the cows can take their exercise once or 

 twice a day. But it does not follow that there should be no 

 permanent meadow land ; on the contrary, it would seem 

 desirable that there should be about as many acres of meadow 

 land as there are cows in milk. This meadow land would grow 

 a crop of hay that would form the basis of the entire winter's 

 food for all the live stock, and the aftermath would be extremely 

 useful in the autumn. In this way, indeed, the cows would 

 have a chance of grazing out in the open fields during two 

 months in the fall of the year, and it would be a good prepara- 

 tion for the coming winter. This, however, would not be 

 arable dairying in the plenary sense, as it is practised in Den- 

 mark, or in France. 



Where the whole of a dairy farm is under arable cultiva- 



