1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



293 



posed the example of Mr. Quincy in feeding 

 stock all summer at the barn, would be followed 

 somewhat reluctantly by the mass of New Eng- 

 land farmers. We have little doubt, however, 

 that this system might be advantageously adopt- 

 ed by many farmers who supply cities and villa- 

 ges with milk, and by mechanics, professional 

 men and others who keep a cow or two for the 

 supply of their own families with pure milk, and 

 who farm, in connection with their other business, 

 from one-fourth of an acre, to one, two, or a few 

 more acres ; being often troubled to hire pasturage, 

 and to get their cow driven daily to and from it 

 •when hired, and who cannot purchase adjoining 

 land short of paying from $100 to $1000 per acre. 

 To all so situated it is important that their land 

 should be made to produce as much as possible, 

 and for this purpose manure is the one thing 

 needful. Mr. Quincy claims that by the soiling 

 system compost may be manufactured from each 

 cow of a value equal to that of her milk. The 

 Homestead says, "If we have the materials at 

 hand to work with, we can readily make 25 cords 

 [Query. — Ed. N. E. F.,"] of rich compost from 

 each animal." Manure is the great want of New 

 England farmers, and every plan for its increase 

 which is not too expensive naturally commends 

 itself to our attention. It is not strange, therefore, 

 that the plan of soiling should be both advocated 

 and practiced here, so far at least as to keep up 

 cows while in full milk. 



But, it is strange to us that a system which in- 

 volves so much care and labor, and which we 

 have ever regarded only as a sort of necessity 

 imposed on farmers where land is limited, pro- 

 duce high, and population dense, should be re- 

 commended by our national teachers of agricul- 

 ture as applicable to the pioneer settlements of 

 our Western territory ; that, because Mr. Quincy 

 finds it profitable, near Boston, to soil his cows, 

 where land is worth hundreds of dollars per acre, 

 milk sells for six cents per small quart, and good 

 manure for $8 per cord, therefore, it will pay 

 "several times over" everywhere else ! Such in- 

 discriminate recommendations do more harm 

 than good. 



Among the papers which make up the Patent 

 Office Report for 1859, is one by D. S. Curtis, 

 of Madison, Wisconsin, which advocates the soil- 

 ing system as adapted to all circumstances and 

 conditions, even to the unbroken prairie regions 

 of the South and West. He says explicitly that 

 "it can be clearly shown that the system will pay 

 several times over, even in the new States where 

 lands are cheap and plenty." He would keep not 

 only cows and working oxen constantly in the 

 stalls, but all young cattle also ; for he looks for- 

 ward to the total abolition of farm fences. 



This we regard as a wonderful specimen of Pa- 



tent Office farming ! certainly so, when compared 

 with the facts stated a few years since in an arti- 

 cle on Domestic Animals, by the same high au- 

 thority, of which the following are specimens : 



"Mr. C. Zeringue, of Jefferson parish. La., 

 says : 'Cattle three years old are valued here at 

 $7 to $8 per head. They are raised at very little 

 cost, the only trouble being to drive them to- 

 gether once a year and mark the calves. " 



"Dr. White, of Quincy, Fla., writes : 'Value 

 of cattle three years old about $6. The only ex- 

 pense of keeping is to ride into the range and 

 mark and brand them in the spring.' " — Patent 

 Office Report, 1849, p. 297. 



"Mr. Turner Vaughan, of Wilson County, 

 Tenn., writes that 'the cost of rearing cattle until 

 three years, is as follows; first year, $1 ; second 

 year, $2 ; third year, $3. On my farm this can 

 be and is done, and pays tolerably fair wages. A 

 short time since I sold thirty-five head at the 

 above-named age for $181, and did very well.' " 

 —lb. 1850, p. 117. 



"Mr. Moses Coburn, of Whitewater, Wal- 

 worth County, Wis., says that the cost of rear- 

 ing steers until they are three years old, in that 

 region, is about $8." — lb., p. 115. 



The farmer, then, who should "green soil" a 

 calf till three years old, in Wisconsin, would re- 

 ceive at the rate of near five and one-third cents 

 cents per week — less than one cent a day — for all 

 the labor of raising, cutting and drawing to the 

 barn the food for the aforesaid steers. How many 

 times over will such soiling pay, especially in the 

 hurrying season of the wheat harvest ; when all 

 your neighbors' steers are growing fat on the 

 abundant products of Uncle Sam's free pasture ? 



In the annual report of the Secretary of the 

 Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts, for the 

 year 1856, are the details of some very inter- 

 esting experiments with the food and milk of fif- 

 teen cows, which were kept on the State Reform 

 School farm. For the purpose of ascertaining 

 the cost and value of food, the animals were 

 weighed twice a day, and the food also carefully 

 weighed. The result as to the cost of the food of 

 each cow, per day, was as follows: 



WTien wholly kept in barn $0.2430 



When kept wholly in pasture 0.0715 



English hay was valued at $15 per ton, meadow 

 hay and corn stalks at $10 per ton, roots at half 

 a cent a pound, &c, 



Pasture land was estimated at $40 the acre, 

 and five acres allowed to each cow. Interest on 

 $200 one year, $12 ; taxes, $1 ; $13 divided by 

 the days in a half year give seven cents and fif- 

 teen one-hundredths as the cost per day of pas- 

 turing one cow. 



•In the report of the same Secretary for 1858, 

 (p. 24,) it is said that four cows were fed eight 

 days on winter rye when in blossom, and that 

 they consumed the crop growing on 13,384 square 

 feet of ground, which would amount, estimating 



