PASTURE OR FORAGE, AND SOILING CROPS 267 



well adapted for growing the cultivated crops. It may be 

 doubtful if one can profitably keep $200 land in permanent 

 pasture. If one is breeding cattle, horses, or sheep to any 

 extent, it probably will be profitable to keep some permanent 

 pasture. Otherwise, it probably will be more profitable 

 to depend upon temporary pastures. Temporary pastures 

 usually are used for only a year or two and are then turned 

 under and a cultivated crop put in. They usually are used 

 as a part of nearly all good rotations and thus are of value 

 not only from the standpoint of their nutritive value but 

 also from the standpoint of their fertilizing value. Unlike 

 permanent pastures, no live stock farmer can afTord to be 

 without temporary pastures. 



Soiling Crops. — A soiling crop is one which is cut green 

 and supphed to animals in confinement. Soilage is one of 

 the most intensive forms of farming. It is more to be 

 recommended to dairy specialists than to followers of other 

 systems of live stock farming. It is commonly practiced 

 in Europe, in the eastern part of the United States, and in 

 the immediate vicinity of some of the larger cities where 

 land is very expensive and labor relatively cheap. In the 

 best systems of soiling, such crops as rye, clover, alfalfa, 

 oats, peas, early and late corn, sorghum, etc., are planted 

 at such a time as to insure a continuous supply of green, 

 though fairly mature, feed from early spring until late fall. 

 Thus by the time one green crop is gone, another is ready to 

 take its place. The feeding value of soiling crops is about 

 the same as that of the same crops when pastured. 



Burkett ^ makes the following suggestions for a soiling 

 scheme. '' Among the best soiling crops the following may 



1 "Feeding Farm Animals," p. 299. 



