SOILING. 



and one horfe did not coiifume more than half a ton of hay 

 in the courfe of a year. Thus it is evident, that fewer 

 plants will either be rejefted, or fuffered to run up to waile. 

 And that it is further well known that many of the belt and 

 fineft grafles, which, when young, form a moft palatable 

 food to cattle, are, if once fuffered to get into ear, fo much 

 difliked by them, that the beafts will never talle them unlefs 

 compelled by extreme hunger. And, as in moft paftures 

 many of thefe graffes get into ear from various caufes, their 

 produce is of courfe inevitably loft to the farmer ; whereas, 

 ;f cut down by the fcythe in proper time, not one plant will 

 be fuffered to get into that naufeating ftate, and conle- 

 quently no wafte be fuftained on this account. Alfo, that, 

 in addition, thofe few plants which are totally difregarded 

 by one clafs of animals, fo as to be rejeded by them even in 

 the houfe, will not, on that account, become lefs acceptable 

 to others, but greatly the reverfe. Thus grafs, or other 

 food that has been blonvn or breathed upsn by any animal for 

 a confiderable time, becomes unpleafant to other beafts of 

 the fame fpecies, but not fo to ftock of another clafs or va- 

 riety, as for them it appears to acquire a higher relifli. Even 

 greater defilement by one animal feems to render food more 

 acceptable to others ; for llraw, which in a clean ftate has 

 been refufed by cattle, if employed as a litter for horfes, ac- 

 quires for the former fuch a relifh, that they feek for it with 

 avidity. Hence it happens, that the fweepings of the italls 

 from one animal fupply a pleafing repaft for thofe of another 

 kind, which can be ealily removed from one to the other, if 

 the plants are confumed in the houfe, but which muft other- 

 wife have been loft in the field. 



This is a praftice which is alfo recommended by the food 

 being confumed witii much lefs wafte, confequently going 

 much further than when fed upon the land ; by the great in- 

 creafe of good manure that is produced ; and by that of the 

 ftock feeding with Irfs interruption and inconvenience, from 

 their being more effefhually Ihaded from the exceflive heat of 

 the fun, and better proteded from the attacks of flies and 

 other infeifts. In all thefe refpefts it would feem to have 

 a great fuperiority over that of letting the animals range 

 over the paftures or other grafs land?. One great and princi- 

 pal objection that has been oppoled to this plan of feeding, 

 is that of the expcnce of condufting the bufinefs being too 

 confiderable. But the extenfive trials of Mr. Mure and 

 Young, and other cultivators and promoters of the prac- 

 tice, fully fhew that it may be executed at an expence that 

 can never form any real objection to it. It has likewife been 

 contended, in oppofition to this prattice, that fuch parts of 

 the live-ftock as are in milk do not afford it fo abundantly 

 as when fed in the paftures, but which is probably a mere 

 fuppofition, as it has been almoll invariably found that moft 

 of the green crops that are cut and employed m this manner 

 have greater effeCl in exciting that fecretion than the com- 

 mon pailure-grafs. But as particular forts of vegetables, as 

 well as other fubftances, aA more powerfully on fome of the 

 glandular organs than others, it is probable that fome kinds 

 of plants may have a greater tendency to promote this kind 

 of fecretion than others, and on this account, cows fed on 

 one fort of food in this praftice may afford lefs milk than 

 on others. 



Farther, it is a procefs of feeding that has alfo been op- 

 pofed, on the idea that animals do not thrive fo well as 

 when grazed in the paftures. It is, however, well re- 

 marked, that the more quiet and free from difturbance 

 cattle are kept, the better they thrive and improve in their 

 flefh. It is not probable that green food, when properly 

 confumed in the fheds of a farm-yard, will be lefs advan- 

 tageous m promoting the growth and fattening of ftock, 



than when eaten in the field, when expofed to the great 

 heat and conitant attacks of flies, and of courfe kept 

 in a continual ftate of reftlellhefs and inquietude. Befides, 

 in experiments to which we might refer, the cattle were found 

 to go on better than ftock of the fame kind, fed in the 

 paftures in the moft favourable feafons for the purpofe. 

 And this is further fupported by trials carefully made, 

 and detailed in the Annals of Agriculture. This notion does 

 not, therefore, appear well fupported by fafts, or to have 

 had any foundation in the experience of farmers in general. 



But its fuperiority in refpeft to the economical confump- 

 tion of the food cannot be difputed. In numerouj experi- 

 ments made in proof of the great iaving in this way, it has 

 been found to go from twice to four or five times as far as 

 when fed on the land ; and in fome trials, much more. Mr. 

 Clofe found that with grafs, clover, lucern, and tares, three 

 times as many cattle were capable of being fupported io 

 better condition than in the pafture mode of feeding ; and 

 with other experimenters it has been found equal to five or 

 fix times as many. The author of a late work has re- 

 marked, that in the field it is obvious that great waile mufl 

 be committed by the grafs being trampled down, dunged 

 upon, and in many other ways, efpecially where a great 

 number of cattle are pathired together, moit of which are 

 avoided in the ftall method. 



It has been, however, flated, that it is an error to fup- 

 pofe that all the wafte is in feeding in the field, and none in 

 the ftall : there i?, on the contrary, a wafte in foiling ; as 

 in cafes where the tares become podded, from the butt ends 

 of the plants being coarfe, and in a ilate of decay by lying 

 on the ground, and, of courfe, rejefted by the animals. 

 The fame thing alfo occurs with lucern, when in full bloffom. 

 Alfo, in the heating of the food, by its remaining heaped 

 together, lofs may likewife be fuftained in fome inttances ; 

 but it fhould moftly be confumed quite frefh in this prac- 

 tice, and no more cut tlian is neceffary for the day. 



However, whatever the wafte in thefe different ways may 

 be, various trials detailed in the Annals of Agriculture 

 clearly prove, that a greatly increaied ftock may be kept 

 upon the fame extent of land in the foiling method, over 

 that of the grazing of the cattle in the fields where the 

 plants grow. 



But the moft interefting circumftance in which tliis prac- 

 tice excels that of pafture feeding is, however, in the im- 

 menfe quantity of excellent manure that is raifed and 

 provided for the produAion of increafed crops of various 

 kinds, and the additional improvement of the lands. It has 

 been well remarked, that this is a method admirably cal- 

 culated for producing an abundance of manure ; as from the 

 great increafe in the urinary difcharges, in the confumption 

 of green food in this way, and the heat of the feafon, the 

 littering material, whatever it may be, is fpeedily converted 

 into manure ; by which means, with proper attention, vaft 

 ftores may confequently be r.-iifed, where there would other- 

 wife be none ; vi-hich is a circumftance of the greateft im- 

 portance, and which abundantly Ihews the great utility and 

 fuperiority of the practice. By thefe means, the fummer 

 produce in manure may probably be made to exceed that of 

 the winter, and at the fame time be fuperior in quality ; as 

 there is reafon to fuppofe that the manure produced by any 

 kind of cattle fed in the fame way, when not in a ftate of 

 fattening, is much better in the fummer than in the winter 

 feafon. The proportion of valuable manure that the careful 

 farmer may be capable of providing, by this fyflem of ma- 

 nagement, is fcarcely to be conceived, except by thofe who 

 have been in the aftual praftice of it. In this view, it is of 

 much importance to have refervoirs for the reception of the • 



urine, 



