TAKING REINS IN HAND. 11 



making, involves grazing ; and can be most profitably 

 conducted on natural grass lands, and at a large dis- 

 tance from market, since the transport of these com- 

 modities is easy. But there remains another branch 

 of dairying milk supply which demands nearness 

 to market, which is even more profitable, and which 

 does not involve necessarily a large reach of grazing 

 land ; the most successful milk dairies in this coun- 

 try, as in Great Britain, being now conducted upon 

 the soiling principle that is, the supply of green 

 food to the cows, in their enclosures or stalls. 



What plan then could be better than this? 

 Transportation to market was small ; the demand 

 constant ; the thorough tillage which the condition of 

 the soil required, was encouraged ; an accumulation 

 of fertilizing material secured. 



The near vicinity of a town suggests also to a 

 good husbandman, the growth of those perishable 

 products which will not bear distant transportation, 

 such as the summer fruits and vegetables. These 

 demand also a thorough system of tillage, and a 

 light friable soil is, of all others, best adapted 

 to their successful culture. But on the other hand, 

 they do not in themselves furnish the means of 

 recuperating lands which have suffered from inju- 

 dicious overcropping. Their cultivation, unless upon 

 fields which are already in a high state of tilth, 



