SOILING AND PASTURE. 



There is great advantage in soiling cattle rather 

 than letting them run on the land and eat at will. 

 An acre of land will carry three times as much stock 

 if the crop is cut and taken to the animals as it will 

 carry if they are allowed to run upon it. When al- 

 falfa is the soiling crop an acre will carry about the 

 same number of animals that five acres will pasture. 



There are good reasons for this. Animals grazing 

 tread down and injure both the soil and the plants. 

 Alfalfa is not perfectly adapted to being depastured. 

 Grasses are natural pasture plants. They make 

 growth from the lower end of the blades. Thus 

 when the upper ends are eaten off the new growth 

 pushes them on up again. However, even grasses 

 are weakened by being eaten too close. Alfalfa grows 

 from buds and if these buds are eaten off then no 

 growth can take place till new buds have started 

 again. Thus it is clearly much more advantageous 

 to let the alfalfa mature and cut and carry the for- 

 age to the animals than to feed it off by depastur- 

 ing. 



Advantages of Soiling. — There are other advan- 

 tages in this manner of feeding alfalfa. It seldom 

 or never bloats animals when it is cut and taken to 

 them, even if fed very green or with the dew on 

 it. For some reason, perhaps because when eating 



(323) 



