182 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



timber promises in the near feature to command a relatively 

 higher price than it bears even now. 



It may be said that cows do much better when pastured than 

 when confined, either upon the system of green soiling or what 

 may be denominated dry soiling. This, however, is never as- 

 serted by those who have tried both methods, the whole of such 

 testimony being the other way. We feel convinced, from our 

 own limited experience, that it is perfectly feasible, and that no 

 valid argument can be brought against the system of keeping 

 milch cows in the barn, with perhaps an hour or two occasion- 

 ally in a yard. They are perfectly contented under such 

 circumstances, and thrive as well, and in a year will give 

 more milk than when allowed to range in ordinary pasture. 

 It is not by any means necessary to raise green food for soiling, 

 but they may be kept upon early cut grass made into hay. 

 This has been our custom for two years past, the cows not 

 getting a bite of grass, nor indeed being allowed to be once 

 outside the barn. A writer in the "Scottish Parmer" men- 

 tions four cows that he reared from calves, that had never set 

 foot in a pasture, and in fact had never stepped out of the stall 

 except when sent to the bull. He fed witli mown grass during 

 the summer season, and upon hay in the winter. 



The result of such a system of feeding is an accumulation of 

 manure that will easily hold the grass land up to a high point 

 of productiveness, in comparison with which pasture land grows 

 more and more unsightly and unremunerative. The relative 

 prices which dairy products bear in the market, and which they 

 must continue to maintain, for the reason that the limited 

 dairy region is constantly becoming less in proportion to the 

 increasing consumption and demand, ought to suggest to the 

 farming interest, on all suitable lands, that its success lies in 

 making the most of its opportunities ; that its great leading 

 staple should bo grass, to which other crops are only adjuncts 

 or secondary ; that the best crop of grass is not to be obtained 

 by a system of culture which only feeds it with manure pre- 

 viously strained through a crop of potatoes, followed by corn 

 and grain ; and, as a final curse, turns the cows upon the 

 mowing fields in October and November, to starve upon dead 

 stubble that affords no nutriment to the animal, but deprives 



