SOILING CROPS. 17 



essential is it to the highest success in raising and 

 properly maintaining farm stock that it must even- 

 tually be practiced by all or nearly all farmers who 

 do not follow the system of complete soiling. 



Tax on Attendants. — Where complete soiling 

 is carried on, the care of the animals must be con- 

 tinuous throughout the season. Every day thereof 

 brings its round of duties, and they cannot be neg- 

 lected except at the expense of the live stock. Food 

 must be secured for the animals with unfailing regu- 

 larity, it must be fed to them every day, and usually 

 two or three times a day. To the average farm 

 laborer this work savors so much of the treadmill 

 order that it is distasteful. He looks upon it in the 

 light of a yoke which he does not care to take upon 

 himself. Hence, until those better days come when 

 such labor will be looked upon through a proper lens, 

 for it has its compensations, the adoption of the 

 soiling system in either form will be relatively slow. 



Adjusting Food Supplies. — Complete soiling 

 calls for the exercise of much thought in securing 

 food supplies and in adjusting them to the needs of 

 the animals. There must needs be succession in 

 foods to keep up a constant supply. No one food is 

 at its best for soiling uses for many weeks in succes- 

 sion. There must also be variety in the foods thus 

 grown in succession. This is essential to the well- 

 being of the animals to which the foods are fed. It is 

 further rendered imperative by the different periods 

 of the year when various plants grow and mature 

 sufficiently for being fed at their best. A supply 

 of these foods must always be on hand through 

 sunshine and storm. In some instances, however, 



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