192 NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



to a pasture for the purpose of exercise, and returned again 

 at night, and fed on fresh mown fodder in the morning. 

 Soiling is no doubt as well adapted to the South as in the 

 North. By this system, cattle are protected from a burning 

 sun during the day, a protection which is almost as impor- 

 tant as protecting them from the cold. Most farmers appear 

 to forget that good stock are like the cereals, which have 

 been brought to their best and improved condition -by ar- 

 tificial means, and the moment the efforts to maintain them 

 in this highly improved state are suspended, they begin to 

 deteriorate. Cattle can no more be kept in a good and pros- 

 perous state than the cereals, which if the condition of the 

 soil is neglected, fail to produce remunerating crops. But 

 furnish them with food and place them in comfortable cir- 

 cumstances, and profits are sure to be returned. 



Soiling is adapted to the circumstances attending the culti* 

 vation of a few or many acres. The system consists in culti- 

 vating those grasses which come to maturity in succession, 

 and it is desirable to be able to vary the kinds of green food 

 every few days, though it is not necessary to the success of 

 the system. 



In connexion with summer feed, it is important also to have 

 an eye to the winter support of the same herd. For this pur- 

 pose root crops become an important part of the system of 

 soiling. When, for example, the patches of corn, oats or rye 

 are cut up, the sugar beet or turnip may be sown for winter 

 feed. To these, then, should be added carrots and sugar parsnips, 

 The object of root culture for stock is to supply a variety of 

 nutriment for horses and cattle, which, if fed with them once 

 a day, may become much more thrifty and healthy than if fed 

 only upon dry fodder. For a Southern grass, the orchard grass 

 should take the place of Timothy. This, with the June grass, 

 red top, and herds grass, and a few others already described, 

 will give all the winter hay which may be required. The 

 practice of pulling fodder from the Indian corn is much more 

 laborious and attended with more trouble than that of mow- 

 ing grass for hay. An acre of sugar beet will produce a 

 thousand bushels, and an acre of carrots over six hundred, and 



