CATTLE SOILING AND ENSILAGE. 809 



X. 



CATTLESOILINQ AND ENSILAQEX 



WHAT Is Soiling ? By soiling is meant the feeding of 

 green food to farm stock in the stable or barn-yard dur- 

 ing the grazing season, instead of allowing them to 

 gather their own food from the pastures. In some countries of 

 Europe the system has been generally adopted, and some exper- 

 iments have been made in this country which have shown that 

 it is practicable here as elsewhere. At present it would not, 

 perhaps, be wise or economical for a majority of our farmers to 

 adopt this plan, but doubtless there are many who would find 

 great profit from it. I wish to present the subject fairly and 

 impartially, showing not only the advantages claimed by the ad- 

 vocates of the system, but also the disadvantages which are 

 connected with it. I have little doubt of its utility, and that 

 in time it will be generally adopted as our lands increase in 

 value and we become better farmers, and learn to appreciate 

 the value of manure and the profit of heavy crops. 



Our system of farming has been wasteful and improvident, as 

 a consequence of cheap lands and the boundless "Out West," to 

 which the farmer could emigrate after he had used up the avail- 

 able plant-food on two or three farms. Hitherto the question 

 in farming has been too generally, How can we get the greatest 

 profit from the soil with the least labor? and but little thought 

 has been given to restoring the fertility removed. I believe 

 that soiling could be now adopted with profit on lands worth 

 fifty dollars or more per acre, and especially on small, fertile 

 farms, and would result in such saving of expense and increase 

 of profit and productiveness of soil as to far overbalance the 

 objections to the system. The advantages claimed by the advo- 

 cates of soiling are many. 



