Advantages of Soiling. 71 



or four acres. There is, I venture, hardly a farmer 

 east of the Mississippi who would not be glad to 

 know how this may be accomplished. The secret is 

 an open one — by keeping a large number of farm 

 animals, and this is the result of soiling. 



In France and Germany soiling is the rule, and 

 pasturing the exception, and the number of their 

 live stock has been greatly increased since the intro- 

 duction of the sugar-beet industry. It is hardly 

 necessary to add that their soil has increased corre- 

 spondingly in productiveness ; while under the pas- 

 ture system productiveness in America has as stead- 

 ily declined, until the average wheat yield is only 

 about thirteen bushels per acre. Let me show 

 you what the soiling of thirty-six head of cat- 

 tle did for me by way of increasing the acreage of 

 my farm. 



You will remember that I started with twelve 

 head, seven cows and five horses. These twelv^e 

 head required sixty acres of hay and pasture, be- 

 sides the coarse forage, such as stalks and straw, 

 that grew on the other forty acres of my loo-acre 

 farm. (I have gone over this once under the head 

 of saving of land. I wish to emphasize it now un- 

 der this head.) By soiling and ensilage (which is 

 simply winter soiling), I was able to increase my 

 stock from twelve head to thirty-six. Thirty-six 

 head at pasture would have required 180 acres, an 

 increase of 150 acres. At the same time my acreage 

 for marketable crops was increased from forty to 

 seventy acres, or an increase of thirty acres, making a 



