CHAP. x. CONDITIONS OF SUCCESSFUL SOILING. 169 



the temperature is normally high, yet the locality not much favoured 

 on the average with rain, it is obvious that the adoption of irrigation 

 will yield good results. 



Another point demanding attention is labour. The system obviously 

 is one in which a great deal of work on the part of the attendants is 

 required. This is not heavy, but it is constant. The right direction 

 and management of labour, then, will largely decide the success or 

 non-success of the system. Labour-saving appliances should be un- 

 sparingly used. 



Whilst, finally, it is easy to instance many minor advantages that 

 may be placed to the credit of the summer soiling of cattle, it is 

 seldom found profitable to follow the practice except with dairy cows 

 on highly farmed lands in the vicinity of large towns where land is 

 relatively dear and labour is cheap in comparison. Dairy farmers in 

 the neighbourhood of Edinburgh and Glasgow, for example, generally 

 keep their cows in the byres summer and winter. On the other hand, 

 the farmers at a distance of a few miles from such large centres of 

 population never soil their cattle in summer, except perhaps during 

 the last few months of their lease, when they happen to have a lot of 

 straw to convert into dung, and the dung has to be taken over at a 

 valuation. There is, as has been remarked, much extra labour with 

 summer soiling, as the fodder has to be cut and carted to the cattle, 

 and the dung from the courts has to be carted out again and spread 

 over the fields, all of which involve a considerable outlay for labour. 

 Summer soiling has been abundantly tried, and, if it were more 

 profitable than grazing, it would have been more extensively adopted. 



As the various grasses adapted for grazing or soiling cattle will be 

 particularly detailed in Book the Tenth of this work (page 893 et seq.), 

 we proceed now to enter on the subject of winter or stall-feeding, or 

 box-feeding. 



CHAPTER XL 



OF WINTER Box AND STALL-FEEDING CATTLE. 



are various opinions as to the best and most profitable way 

 J_ of accomplishing this branch of the grazier's occupation. The 

 commonest way is to keep the stock in sheds surrounding open folds 

 or yards, and to tie up the actual fattening cattle, and leave the others 

 at liberty ; but here the rain and the rain-water from the roofs of the 

 sheds descend upon the manure and wash all the finest particles away. 

 Stalls or sheds in which the fattening cattle are tied up in couples, or 

 sometimes singly, is the next system. Here the litter is changed twice 

 or thrice a week, and consequently, unless the reservoir for the manure 

 is very well arranged, loss must ensue. 



