214 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
economics that is the one thing in which we do 
not wish to economize. The multiplication of 
well-paid and well-paying labor is a thing to be 
specially desired. If the soiling farm will keep 
two or three more men employed at good wages, 
and at the same time pay better interest than 
the grazing farm, it should be looked upon as 
much the better method. The question of fur- 
nishing landscape for hogs is one that borders 
too closely on the esthetic or the sentimental to 
gain the approval of the factory-farm man. 
What is true of hogs is also true of cows. They 
are better off under the constant care of intelli- 
gent and interested human beings than when 
they follow the rippling brook or wind slowly 
o’er the lea at their own sweet pleasure. 
The truth is, the rippling brook doesn’t always 
furnish the best water, and the lea furnishes very 
imperfect forage during nine months of the year. 
A twenty-acre lot in good grass, in which to take 
the air, is all that a well-regulated herd of fifty 
cows needs. The clean, cool, calm stable is much 
to their liking, and the regular diet of a first- 
class cow-kitchen insures a uniform flow of 
milk. 
What is true of hogs and cows is true also of 
hens. The common opinion that the farm-raised 
hen that has free range is healthier or happier 
than her sister in a well-ordered hennery is not 
based on facts. Freedom to forage for one’s self 
and pick up a precarious living does not always 
