No. 11. 



The Soiling Si/stem. 



335 



The Soiling System. 



From an account of the farming of R. L 

 Pell, of Ulster county, N. Y., in the Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist, we make the following 

 extracts : 



Treatment, of Milch Cows. — During the 

 summer, Mr. Pell's cows are kept in the 

 barn-yard, soiled. They are fed three times 

 per day, at stated hours, and in addition to 

 their ordinary food, receive at 12 o'clock, 

 each day, about eight quarts of wheat-bran, 

 wet with water. The general feeding is 

 dry hay, green grass, green cornstalks, oc- 

 casionally a few potatoes, and salt whenever 

 the cows feel a disposition for it. Water 

 they have access to at all times of the day 

 and night, and should never be without it. 

 An experiment was tried of giving the cows 

 water only three times a day, immediately 

 after eating their food, and they seemed sat- 

 isfied. They were then constantly supplied, 

 and drank freely nine times in one day, tak- 

 ing apparently as much at each draft as when 

 allowed water only three times; so that when 

 permitted to drink only three times a day, 

 they must have suffered from thirst in the 

 intervals. 



When the weather is very hot or rainy, 

 the cows have sheds made partially under 

 ground, into which they can retire and ru- 

 minate undisturbed. With this treatment 

 they constantly take on fat, and secrete 

 twice the quantity of milk that they would 

 if allowed to run at large. During the last 

 summer, the cows gave an average of six- 

 teen quarts of milk daily, and in the fall 

 were fit for the butcher. 



In the winter they are kept in stalls in a 

 warm barn, littered freely, as occasion re- 

 quires, and daily curried and rubbed. When 

 the weather is fine, they are turned into the 

 barn-yard for exercise, in the middle of the 

 day. Twice a day they are fed on cut oat 

 and wheat straw, with a small quantity of 

 bran sprinkled over it, for the sake of which 

 they eat their allowance entirely up, and 

 once a day cut hay; they are salted four 

 times a week, and have roots, such as beets, 

 carrots, potatoes, or turnips, once a week. 

 By cutting the straw and hay, cattle are en- 

 abled to eat their meal in twenty-three min- 

 utes; whereas, if uncut, they are engaged 

 in masticating their food half the night, Ihe 

 labour and fatigue of which deprive them 

 of the necessary time required for their rest. 



Advantages of thus Soiling Stock. — Mr. 

 Pell carted from his barn-yard 230 loads of 

 manure on the 10th of May, which was made 

 m the preceding six months. On the 10th 

 of November, from the same yard, he carted 

 £36 loads more, averaging 30 bushels per 



load, made within the six months following 

 the 10th of May. Five cows only were 

 kept, which thus made 466 loads of good 

 manure in one year. During the summer, 

 leaves, straw, &c., were constantly thrown 

 into the yard, and occasionally covered with 

 charcoal dust. Each cow voided in six 

 months, 6,000 lbs. of urine, which was ab- 

 sorbed by the refuse, and its strength re- 

 tained by the charcoal dust, gypsum, &c. ; 

 the manure, therefore, was intrinsically 

 worth the New York city price, viz: ^1 

 the wagon load, or $466. 



In addition to making this great quantity 

 of manure, the other advantages of soiling 

 are : — 1. No cross-fences are required on the 

 farm. 2. The cows give twice as much 

 milk as when running at large. 3. They 

 are fit for the shambles in the fall, being 

 fat. 4. They are ahvays ready to be milked. 

 5. They are never worried by being driven 

 to and from the pasture. 6. They eat all 

 the refuse grass, which would otherwise be 

 lost. 7. Eight acres will keep them longer 

 and better than forty would depastured. 8. 

 The fields are always in order, not being 

 poached by their feet in wet weather. 9. Ma- 

 nure enough is saved to pay the interest on 

 a large farm. Numerous other good rea- 

 sons might be given, if the above are not 

 considered sufficient. 



The above experiment of Mr. Pell, show- 

 ing the superiority of the soiling system, is 

 strongly corroborated by others made in Eu- 

 rope, though probably unknown to Mr. Pell 

 when he commenced his. We quote from a 

 speech recently made before a meeting of the 

 Larnc Farming Society, in Ireland, by Mr. 

 Donaghy, superintendent of the Agricultural 

 Department of the Larne National School : 



'■ Mr. Smith, of Deanston, a gentleman 

 whose scientific and practical knowledge as 

 an agriculturist, has placed him in the first 

 rank of the improvers of the soil, is no 

 mean authority in support of the soiling 

 system. In the summer of 1841, he made 

 an experiment on a dairy of twenty cows, 

 pasturing the one-half and house-feeding the 

 other. He selected them as equally as pos- 

 sible, in point of carcass, condition, and 

 milking quality. The result of his experi- 

 ment was, that the cows house-fed, gave 

 their milk more plentifully and more uni- 

 formly, and continued throughout in excel- 

 lent health, and improved in condition from 

 30s. to 40s. per head over those at pasture. 

 The cows house-fed were kept on three- 

 quarters of a statute acre each, whilst those 

 that were pastured, required one and a quar- 

 ter acre of pasture, and a quarter acre of 

 cut grass and vetches, makmg one r c e and 

 a half for each; so that, upon thej whole, 



