CHAP. x. ADVANTAGES OF GREEN SOILING OF CATTLE. 161 



saving would be very great, from the absence of all poaching during 

 the growth of the crop, and from the young leaves and blossoms being 

 permitted to reach their full development. There are likewise particular 

 seasons of the year when the advantages of soiling are very great. Sir 

 John Sinclair states that thirty-three head of cattle were soiled from 

 May 20 to October 1, 1815, on seventeen acres and a half, whereas fifty 

 acres would have been necessary had they been pastured. 1 



II. There is also a very considerable saving in the quantity of food 

 consumed, as well as a greater variety of plants eaten, and consequently 

 prevented from running to waste ; for, when animals are suffered to go 

 upon the field, many plants are necessarily trodden under foot and 

 bruised, or partly buried in the earth ; in which state they are not 

 relished by cattle, and are suffered to run to waste a circumstance 

 that never could occur if the practice of cutting were adopted. 



If a close consumption of plants is the object principally to be 

 regarded, it is evident that the benefit to be derived from soiling will 

 be very great ; for experience has clearly proved that cattle will eat 

 many plants with avidity, if cut and given to them in the house, which 

 they never would touch while growing in the field ; such are cow- 

 parsnip, thistles, nettles, and numerous others. It is also well known 

 that many of our best and finest grasses, which when young afford a 

 most palatable food to cattle, are, if once suffered to get into ear, so 

 much disliked by them that they are rarely or never touched, and their 

 produce is lost to the grazier ; whereas, if cut down by the scythe in 

 proper time, not one plant would be suffered to become dry and un- 

 pleasant to the cattle, and consequently no waste could be sustained 

 from this cause. 



In addition to the preceding observations it may be remarked, that 

 the few plants that are totally rejected by one class of animals, are not, 

 on that account, less acceptable to others, but greatly the reverse. 

 Grass, and other food that has been blown or breathed upon for a 

 considerable time by one description of stock, seems to have acquired 

 additional relish with stock of another variety. Nay, even greater defile- 

 ment by one animal seems to render food more acceptable to others ; for 

 straw, which in a clean state has been refused by cattle, acquires -a taste 

 or smell, if employed as a litter for horses, that induces them to seek it 

 with avidity. Hence it often happens that the sweepings of the stalls 

 of one class of animals will supply a pleasant repast for others, and 

 thus plants are consumed in the house which must have been lost in 

 the field. 



III. With regard to the influence produced on the health and 

 comfort of cattle, the balance is clearly in favour of soiling. They are 

 not liable to be blown or hoven, or to be staked or otherwise injured by 

 breaking the fences. They are not incommoded by the heat or 

 annoyed by swarms of flies and gnats, and, most of all, they are not 

 driven to a state little short of madness by that most dreadful of all 

 persecutors the ox warble-fly* a plague which, to an unthought-of 



1 "Code of Agriculture, " p. 487. 



2 The (Estrus bovis of Linnaeus ; Hypoderma bovis, De Geer. The loss caused by the 



M 



