Advantages of Soiling. 51 



head were supported from the product of thirty 

 acres of land. This was the average for three 

 years. This left me seventy acres for marketable 

 crops. It will be seen that while I was keeping 

 three times as much stock as formerly, I did so on 

 just half the land, and at the same time nearly 

 doubled the acreage of marketable crops. What 

 does this mean? It means that thirty-six head at 

 hay and pasture would have required 180 acres. 

 The capacity of my farm was, therefore, increased 

 from sixty to 180, an increase of 120 acres. The 

 acreage of my farm for marketable crops was in- 

 creased from forty to seventy, an increase of thirty 

 acres, or a total increase of 150 acres without buy- 

 ing a rod of land. So much for the saving of land. 

 In other words, any loo-acre farm that will support 

 twenty head of cattle by hay and pasture (and that's 

 about all it will do unless it is in a very high state of 

 cultivation), that same farm by soiling will support, 

 and in much better condition, 100 head of cattle. 

 So far as soiling alone is concerned, if you were to 

 buy a farm to support 100 head of cattle, and your 

 method was hay and pasture, you would require at 

 least 500 acres, to say nothing about grain. Where- 

 as, if you adopt a strict soiling system, as hereafter 

 described, you would be required to buy only 100 

 acres, a saving of 400 acres. Is this not worth an 

 effort? Can you not afford a little extra labor to 

 make a loo-acre farm support 100 head of cattle in- 

 stead of twenty? We shall discuss this point further 

 under the head of extra labor. It may be asked, 



