72 Soiling. 



total increase of acreage of i8o acres, without buying 

 a foot of land ; this, added to the original farm, gave 

 an equivalent of 280 acres. These figures are start- 

 ling, but there is no getting past them. I am not say- 

 ing what I think may be done, but what actually hap- 

 pened. If we are frightened when we think of the 

 extra labor it will incur to soil our cattle, just think a 

 moment. Is it not worth a little extra labor to add to 

 the acreage of a loo-acre farm another 180 acres with- 

 out buying it? Nor is that all. The same acres under 

 the soiling system more than doubled in productive- 

 ness, as already shown. So that taking the old farm 

 as I started with it, which is about the average of the 

 farms, I have practically increased my acreage from 

 100 to 500. Do you say that that is too liberal? 

 Just look about you to-day, and see how many 500- 

 acre farms you can find where the system of hay for 

 winter and pasture for summer is the method, and 

 how many can you find that carry over thirty-six 

 head of full-grown stock, and at the same time have 

 under cultivation for marketable crops to be sold off 

 the farm over seventy acres? When you show me 

 that farm, I will show you one that is above the 

 average. Here lies (both soiling and ensilage) the 

 great and undeniable advantage over pasturing. 

 Beside it, all other points here mentioned sink into 

 insignificance. 



When ensilage first came out, our experimental 

 stations haggled, and contradicted, and doubted, 

 alwaj's looking to the comparative value of hay, or 

 cornstalks, and ensilage, losing sight entirely of "the 



