GREEN FORAGE AND HAY CROPS 95 



II. SOILING CROPS 5 



The soiling system consists in furnishing farm animals a suc- 

 cession of green feed in the stable or enclosures during the entire 

 summer period. This system has long been practised by European 

 dairy farmers; it became known in this country mainly through the 

 essays on " Soiling of Cattle," by Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, 

 written nearly one hundred years ago. 



The main advantages of the system as compared with pasturage 

 may be briefly stated as follows : 



1. Less land is required to produce the feed necessary for a cer- 

 tain number of animals than with pasture. 



Fig. 12. — Indian corn grown for the silo or for soiling. ("Productive Farming." Davis.) 



2. There is no waste through tramping, lying down on the grass, 

 or fouling with manure ; the feed is cut at the proper time, and is 

 always fresh and palatable (Fig. 12). 



3. Less fencing is required, as cows need only a small enclosure 

 for exercise under the soiling system. 



4. The cattle are often more comfortable and in better condition 

 when fed green feed in the stable than when left to find their own 

 feed in the pasture, with the uncertainties as to condition of pasture, 

 weather, etc. 



5. The production of a large and even flow of milk is therefore 

 favored, or a uniform increase in live weight in the case of fattening 

 stock. 



6. All the manure is saved and the fertility of the farm is there- 

 fore better maintained than under pasturage. Quincy gives as his 

 experience that this saving alone is " a full equivalent for all the 



E Adapted from an article on this subject by the author in Cyclopedia 

 American Agriculture, vol. ii, pp. 569-574. 



