THE SOILING SYSTEM 249 



Saving of Land. The greatest advantage that can be 

 urged for soiling is the much greater returns in the way of feed 

 that it is possible to secure from a given area. This saving of 

 land comes about in three ways especially. The most im- 

 portant is that the crops are allowed to become more mature 

 before being used. When pasture grass is eaten in an imma- 

 ture form, it is not given opportunity to utilize its leaves and 

 roots to the best advantage to build up the plant. It is a 

 demonstrated fact, for example, that the corn plant gathers 

 the greater part of its nutrients after the plant is fully grown. 

 If the growth should be cut off as soon as it reached the height 

 of a few inches, the yield of feed per acre would be very small. 

 The same is true, to a less degree, however, with grasses. For- 

 age crops used for soiling are cut when nearly mature, but be- 

 fore they have become woody and unpalatable. 



The second reason why pasturing does not yield as much 

 feed as soiling crops is that in the former the plants are injured 

 by the treading of the feet and the soiling of the grass with 

 manure. 



A third reason to be taken into account is the injury done 

 to the land by the trampling of the stock, especially during 

 wet weather. 



By following the soiling system, Detrick, 1 whose remarkable 

 results have been widely quoted, was able to raise all the 

 roughness needed for thirty head of stock, of which seventeen 

 were cows in milk, on seventeen acres. The land on which 

 these results were obtained was in the beginning so run down 

 that it would hardly support three animals. The fertility 

 was built up by barnyard manure until two crops per year, to- 

 gether equal to about 6.7 tons of hay per acre, were produced. 



1 Farmers' Bulletin No. 242, U. S. Dept. of Agric. 



