82 THE dairyman's manual. 



object is gained. And soiling will make this possible. 

 Tor the practice of soiling some suitable arrangements 

 are necessary. A yard provided with feed racks and a 

 supply of water, adjoining the stable and furnished with 

 an open shed for shelter ; and for large herds some ad- 

 jacent grass lots are required. The remainder of the 

 land is unobstructed by fences and is all under the plow. 

 Where soiling is only partial, and for the support of the 

 cows while the grass fails for two or three months only, 

 nothing more is required than suitable provision for grow- 

 ing the crops and feeding them in some convenient 

 manner, either m the pastures or in the yards or stables. 

 The crops that have been found most suitable for the 

 purpose are rye sown m the fall, orchard grass, clover, oats 

 or barley and peas mixed, field corn, sweet corn, millet, 

 alfalfa (lucern), and hay and roots for winter feeding. 

 These crops are grown m succession ; that is, rye sown 

 early in the fall makes the first feeding, either for early 

 spring pasturing or cutting as soon as it shows the heads; 

 this IS followed by orchard grass, which is a permanent 

 crop and may be pastured or mown as soon as the rye is 

 exhausted. As the rye is cut off in strips across the 

 field, the land stripped is at once manured, plowed, and 

 planted with early sweet corn — Narragansett being pre- 

 ferred, because it is nearly as early as the earliest, and is 

 larger in growth and in every way excellent. As soon as 

 another strip is cleared of rye, it is treated m the same 

 way, until the whole of the rye ground is planted. Clover 

 comes into use with or after the orchard grass. These 

 crops as a rule should be cut and not pastured, as there 

 is an economy of fully twenty-five per cent in cutting 

 over pasturing. The clover lasts until the first swTct 

 corn is ready early in July, and from that time there will 

 be abundance of fodder from the corn all summer. As 

 the ground is cleared of corn it is manured and plow^ed, 

 and replanted with Evergreen sweet corn, or with early 



