NORFOLK SOCIETY. 461 



cow " soiled," per day, will certainly be more than sufficient 

 for summer " soiling ;" but as before stated, if there should be 

 excess, nothing is lost, as it becomes a resource for winter food 

 for cattle. 



I cannot close this communication, without remarking upon 

 the importance of this system, and of its being known and un- 

 derstood. Nothing seems less realized than the productive 

 power of the soil, when it is good, arable, and well cultivated. 

 A man hardly dares to call himself, in our country, a farmer, 

 unless he have thirty, forty, or fifty acres. If he have only ten, 

 fifteen, or twenty, he aspires only to the character of a gar- 

 dener ; but as to keeping any number of cattle beyond what is 

 wanted for his own family use, he generally regards it wholly 

 out of the question. Now there is in our country no class of 

 men whom it is more desirable to encourage and instruct in 

 the actual productive power of the quantity of land they 

 possess, than these ten, fifteen, or twenty acre men. As this 

 class multiplies, as it must, it will become a most important 

 element in preserving and perpetuating conservative principles 

 in" our institutions. The consciousness of an identity of in- 

 terest between the small and the great landholder, is in a re- 

 public, one of the strongest bonds of its continuance and hap- 

 piness. A practical knowledge of the productive power of the 

 soil, and of the mode of making its yield the most, will not 

 only create in"them content, but will prevent them from run- 

 ning into debt for more land, a practice, of all others, the most 

 embarrassing and ruinous to that class of farmers. That this 

 class may obtain distinct and practical knowledge of the mode 

 of operating on a small scale, on this system, I state that I 

 have known two head of milch cows kept in full milk and high 

 condition through the whole summer season on one acre of 

 land, and some food from it left for winter use. To obtain the 

 requisite succession of green food, one-quarter of an acre was 

 sown of articles herein already stated, early in April, another 

 quarter about fifteen days after the first, and so the remaining 

 two quarters in similar succession. 



The first sown will be in a state to be used in " soiling" 

 about the 1st of July, until which time, grass cut and brought 

 to the stable is the reliance. From the 1st to the loth of July, 

 the food obtained from the first quarter of an acre, will be 



