No. 1. 



Soiling Cattle. — JMieat on Clover-lay. 



11 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 On Soiling Cattle. 



Mr. Editor, — In addition to Mr. Jabez 

 Jenkins's very interesting and satisfactory 

 statement relating to the soiling of cattle 

 during the summer, and in which he has 

 proved that the system, even in this country, 

 of high wages and low rents, will pay, I beg 

 to be permitted to copy from the second vol- 

 ume of the Agricultural Memoirs of the 

 Philadelphia Society, extracts, contained in 

 a letter addressed to the Society, by John 

 Lorain, on this highly important subject, 

 which ought, assuredly, to claim more atten- 

 tion than it does at the present day, from our 

 practical men. But it is passing strange, 

 that we have no instances on record, so tar 

 as I know, of perfect success in the attempt 

 to fatten cattle by a system of soiling; and 

 although the failures, both in the case of Mr. 

 Jenkins and of Mr. Lorain, are recorded, and 

 appear quite sufficient to account for all, yet 

 it does not appear that either of these gen- 

 tlemen has ever attempted to rectify the 

 very palpable error into which they had 

 fallen; although both have had the magnan- 

 imity to acknowledge it: this appears strange 

 indeed, and leaves the field open for another 

 experiment, which would scarcely be found 

 to fail, one would suppose, after the ground 

 of failure had been so marked and pointed 

 out. And it is a matter of astonishment, 

 that Mr. Lorain should a second time have 

 attempted to feed with the second cut of 

 clover, seeing, as he already had, the effect 

 on the health of the cattle, in the first year 

 of the experiment! But being thus fore- 

 warned, have we not a right to expect that 

 the next person who makes the experiment 

 will succeed, by preparing beforehand a suc- 

 cession of crops suitable for the purpose, 

 and not be compelled to feed with that food 

 which has repeatedly been found to be im- 

 proper, or to attempt the experiment on cat- 

 tle, the refuse of a drove, and confessedly of 

 an unsuitable age! I guess we have, and 

 then, I for one, am in no fear for the result. 

 Mr. Lorain says, " I am now trying to fatten 

 27 young healthy steers, rising up from about 

 five to nine hundred pounds; also seven three- 

 year old runts and a cow, by soiling them in 

 yards, where they have shelter from sun and 

 rain, and good spring water at will; fresh 

 grass being also given them twice a day, 

 under my own inspection. For two years 

 past I have not succeeded, owing, as I sup- 

 pose, to deficiency of spear-grass; for they 

 improved as fast as expected, until the se- 

 cond cut of clover, which caused a frothing 

 from the mouth; and they would scarcely 

 eat a sufficiency to keep them alive. But 



the economy of feeding in this way, has not 

 been exaggerated by reputable European 

 writers; in this I think I cannot be mis- 

 taken, as correct accounts are kept for every 

 field and transaction of my farm. One man, 

 and a boy twelve years old, feed the above, 

 together with six horses and three milk cows, 

 one bull and a large ox, which is grain fed ; 

 and where the grass is good, the labour is 

 not hard, the manure being worth more than 

 their labour. And although Dr. Anderson's 

 mode of making hay under cover, may be 

 rather visionary on an extensive scale, here 

 it may be beneficially practised, and not a 

 fork-full lost by over-feeding." B. 



July 13th, 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Wheat on Clover-lay. 



Mr. Editor, — Numerous are the articles 

 which have appealed from time to time in 

 the Cabinet, recommending the sowing of 

 wheat on clover-lay after one ploughing, 

 and this in preference to an often repeated 

 stirring, even when such treatment might 

 be seasonable, and could be afforded without 

 inconvenience or at extra cost of much la- 

 bour. Now, I have six acres of clover -lay 

 at the present time, which I wish to sow 

 with wheat; the first crop of hay has been 

 carried, and the second crop has shot six or 

 eight inches in height — what is the plan 

 which your practical readers would propose 

 for my adoption ? 1st. Would they recom- 

 mend me to take another crop of hay, and 

 after dunging the land, turn it down with a 

 small and deep furrow, and sow wheat"? Or 

 2ndly. Would they prefer that I should turn 

 down the second crop of clover as manure, 

 and sow the wheat after once ploughing'? 

 Or 3dly. Would they have the clover par- 

 tially fed and the land turned over, so to lie 

 for a season, then to be run back and worked 

 with the harrows, and then turned down 

 again, as has been proposed ? I should say, 

 the land is in good heart, and is rather stiff, 

 yet by no means so as to require the turning 

 in a heavy second crop of clover, to act me- 

 chanically as a pulverizer of the soil ; while 

 I am free to confess that I have never found 

 great benefit from a dressing of green clover 

 on light soils, where the action might be ex- 

 pected to be chemical chiefly ; the effects of 

 burying green crops, being rather to give a 

 sudden spring to the wheat crop; a thing of 

 all others, perhaps, to be deprecated at that 

 season of the year. Nor, for the same rea- 

 son do I, therefore, deem the dunging of the 

 land to be recommendable — but I am dicta- 

 ting, rather than eliciting answers. I would 

 also ask, although I have sufficient dung pre- 



