818 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



The stable and all the arrangements for the care of stock is 

 a matter of greater importance in soiling than in winter feed- 

 ing, for cattle will eat three or four times as great a weight of 

 food and produce a greater weight of manure to be handled, 

 and the arrangements should be as convenient as possible for 

 handling both food and manure. The barn should, if possible, 

 be so arranged that the wagon could be driven in with the food 

 and it fed directly to the stock without extra handling, and this 

 can be best secured by having the stables on two or three sides 

 of a floor or drive-way raised above the level of the stable, 

 enough so that all the cattle can eat directly from the floor. 

 With a floor fourteen feet wide and a stable on each side, the 

 loaded wagon can be driven in the center and the feed pitched 

 directly to the stock on either side. The floor and manure 

 ditch in the stable should be arranged as described in the 

 dairy chapter, and there should be a good plank track for the 

 wheel-barrow to the dumping place for the manure. If a large 

 number of cattle are kept, it will pay to arrange the stable 

 with a drive-way so that the wagon can pass through and the 

 manure be taken directly from the manure ditches to the fields. 



The nearer the crops used for soiling can be grown to the 

 stable the better; and if all fences are removed, so that there 

 will be no opening and shutting of gates, much time will 

 be saved. 



Soiling Crops. The earliest crop from which we can cut 

 green food is winter rye. It should be sown early for this pur- 

 pose from the first to the fifteenth of September in the Eastern 

 and Middle States. I would recommend not less than two 

 bushels of seed per acre. If it grows so vigorously in fall as 

 to be in danger of smothering, it can be pastured when the land 

 is dry, or cut high with a machine. It will do to begin feeding 

 before it is in head, and when cut thus early will furnish a sec- 

 ond crop. I do not find it a perfect ration, and think it best 

 always to give some more nitrogenous food, such as bran, with 

 it. It comes so early that it is of great value. On good soil 

 from twelve to fifteen tons per acre can be cut, and about three- 

 quarters of a square rod will feed a cow a day. If clover-hay 



