£or tljc 1) 011113. 
FARMING FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. 
No. 40. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Soiling Cattle. 
There are some questions in the art of farm¬ 
ing which are easily settled by simply reasoning 
about them ; and that regarding soiling cat¬ 
tle is one of these. There are but two ways 
of feediug cattle, or pasturing, or permitting 
them to take their food from the ground as 
it is grow ing ; and gathering the food crops 
and feeding them to the cattle in barn, stable 
or the yard. It is very easy to perceive, that, if 
horaes, cow's, pigs, sheep and poultry were 
allowed to run in the fields and eat the grass 
corn, oats, beets, turnips or potatoes, that 
were grown for them there would he an enor¬ 
mous waste, and the animals would have too 
much food at one time, and none at another, 
and Would simply starve in the Winter. To 
avoid this waste and this starvation we gath¬ 
er and house the crops, aud feed them to the 
stock in such quantities as are needful ; using 
our reason, instead of leaving them to their 
own instincts, which is very imperfect as com¬ 
pared with human reason. 
The same principle applies to some extent 
to the method of soiling, which is the practice 
of growing crops to be cut green aud fed to 
cattle in the Summer, in haras or stables, or 
in racks in the yards. If a farmer grows corn 
or oats, or peas for his cows, l;o dare not turn 
them into the fields to eat these crops, because 
the cows would trample down aud destroy 
much more than they would eat. So he is 
forced to cut these crops and feed them to the 
cows in such a way as to prevent them from 
wasting the food. This is soiling. And it is 
one of the most economical ways of feeding 
animals. 
Soiling is practiced either partially or com¬ 
pletely, as may be found the most convenient 
for the farmer. A dairyman who has grass 
lands suitable for pasture, soils his cows, when 
the grass begins to fail in the hot, dry Sum¬ 
mer months. He sows oats, and plants coin, 
aud when the grass begins to dry up and be¬ 
comes bar I, he cuts and feeds the oats and 
corn. This is partial soiling. When a dairy¬ 
man or fanner has no pasture, and wishes to 
keep cows for milk or for butter, he must soil 
the cows completely. He begins iu the Fall to 
prepare for it by sowing rye which he cuts in 
April and May and feeds to the cows. He has 
a piece of clover or grass which is in full 
growth when the rye begins to get hard and 
nearly ripe. Then he cuts the clover and 
grass and feeds these, and cuts down the rest 
of the rye and cures it for feed in the Winter. 
Very early in the Spring, as soon as the 
ground can be made ready, some oats are 
sown, and in a few days some more are sown, 
aud this is repeated every few days, until it is 
time to plant corn, early in May. When the 
clover and grass are used up, the iirst of the 
oats are ready, and the oats are fed until they 
begin to get ripe in July, when the tirst early 
corn is ready to cut. The oats are then cut 
aud cured and put away lor the Winter. A 
piece of ground is planted with beets or man¬ 
gels in May, and another piece in June where 
the rye was taken off. The rest of the rye 
ground is planted with corn, and as the oats 
are cut, coni is planted on that ground too. 
For the first corn an early kind is planted, 
and sweet corn is preferred for this use, be¬ 
cause it is much liked by the cows and is eaten 
without any waste. The corn is fed from the 
time it is first ready until it begins to ripen, 
when the second cutting of clover and grass 
is ready, or the iirst sown beets or mangels. 
When it is too late to plant eorn on the hist 
oat ground, millet or Hungarian grass is sown 
and this ean be cut in about six weeks, either 
for feeding green or to be cured for the Win¬ 
ter. lathe Winter the beets aud mangels 
supply fresh food, and the cured crops dry 
fodder. In this way the cows may be fed all 
the year round without leaving the stables or 
yards, or a small lot, where they can take 
some exercise and get what water they need; 
and it is quite easy for one cow to be fed all 
the year from one acre of ground, while 10 
acres are needed under the usual system. 
The only question which needs to be consid¬ 
ered, is, whether it is better to grow grass 
and let the cows pasture it, and take 10 acres 
for each cow; or to grow soiling crops and do 
the extra work required iu feeding the cows 
and so make 10 acres keep 10 cows. There 
are farms where land is cheap and cannot be 
plowed and produces grass plentifully. On 
such farms pasturing must be practiced and 
will pay the best; but there are other farms 
where land is dear ami does not produce good 
grass, but does produce rye, oats, corn and 
roots to perfection, especially when there is 
plenty of manure to put on the fields. On 
such farms soiling can be practiced with ad¬ 
vantage. It is quite easy to see that a very 
large quantity of manure will be made, 
where cows are soiled, and this, too, is a 
point which is very important in considering 
this subject. 
WHAT TO DO. 
UNCLE MARK. 
An old fable runs somewhat as follows; A 
little rain drop during a shower one day 
crept under the cornice and very demurely 
watched its fellows as they went laughing and 
dancing along the gutter. 
“ Come and join us ” said a gay fellow as he 
went leaping past. 
“ Can’t do any good,” the lonely drop re¬ 
plied, “besides there are enough of you with¬ 
out me aud I shall get along quite as well, 
here by myself.” Poor, unsuspecting little 
fellow! It was not long before the bright sun 
came out, and he was gone. 
Well, we are all but drops in'the great 
shower of human life, and sometimes, in our 
younger days, we think we are such small 
drops that we can do no good. But, can we 
not? If we begin right, we may. 
Now how shall rny young readers begin, if 
they have not already, to do something so that 
they may not be like the idle drop, unable 
and unwilling to join the great tide ever 
flowing; how shall they not ho left behind in 
the race for all that is noble, true and good; 
how shall those who have decided to make 
farming their life-work, in it attain the best 
success? 
The farmer can profit by education as well 
as anybody, and the young man who obtaius 
the best education within his reach, has taken 
one grand step. A great many of our farmer 
boys cannot attend school in the Summer ow- 
iug to pressure of work, hut in the Winter 
season they have ample opportunity to study 
and improve their minds and this opportunity 
they should accept. First of all. then, get a 
good, sound, common school education, and 
if you have a desire, and your parents con¬ 
sent, to go still farther, do it! 
Then, in addition to your studies this Win¬ 
ter procure some good books and papers on 
horticulture aud agriculture and make them 
your companions during the coming long 
Winter evenings instead of the trashy litera¬ 
ture too often found iu the hands of the 
young. In this way you may learn some¬ 
thing of the theories and practice of others, 
and tie laying a good foundation for future 
work. The amount of information gained by 
a course of reading through the Winter, in 
connection with occasional conversations with 
those who have experience in farming, will 
be greater than you now suppose. 
When Spring again opens and the time 
arrives for making preparation for next year’s 
crops, keep both eyes open; put into practice 
something of which you have read; make 
Nature your instructor, and you may again be 
surprised at what you can do and how well you 
can do it. In this way you will not be “ an idle, 
lonely drop” iu the great tide of agricultural 
life, but as you grow older ami become more 
experienced, you will hear others say “come 
and join us ” in our attempts to promote each 
others', and our country’s, welfare and you will 
not say like the little drop in the fable, 
“ Can’t do any good;” your education train¬ 
ing and experience wall place you where you 
cannot tmly say it for a your influence must 
be felt. 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSINS. 
Uncle Mark: We know your word is law, 
and not liking to have our names stricken 
from the list, will make the best effort we are 
able to. We had no success with the seeds 
sent out by you, but were more fortunate with 
the geueral distribution. The dianthus is a 
great addition to our flower garden, every 
seed producing different colored flowers. 
The pinks, which the carnations proved to be, 
are pretty, but one variety of large fringed 
flowers are especially beautiful. Cousins, 
imagine you are riding through a country 
where the barns are covered with prairie hay, 
the houses are generally a story-arnl-a-half 
high, about lti feet wide and 24 feet long, 
without porches, and unpainted. There is 
usually a grove around t hem, but very sel¬ 
dom an orchard. The garden is not even 
fenced off, so if we have any at all we must 
scare hogs and chickens from the time it is 
planted till we gather the produce. We sel¬ 
dom have any help from the men after they 
plow it, for they consider working in a gar¬ 
den a waste of time, and only women and chil¬ 
dren’s work. A corn-field of large area is the 
bight of their ambition. This may give a 
little idea of some of the homes on this West¬ 
ern prairie. Rosy and Andrew Benton. 
Grundy Center, Iowa. 
Dear Uncle Mark; —1 am now going to 
tell you ho w the seed that you sent grew. 
The oats, sorghum, asparagus and the White 
Elephant all grew nicely. There will be about 
a peck of oats after they are threshed. The 
sorghum ripened some seed. The White Ele¬ 
phant we planted in four hills. There were 
25 potatoes dug, weighing 13 pounds; six of 
them weighed over a pound each. There 
were quite a number of “babies.” The bugs ate 
two bills off after they got to growing nicely, 
but they grew agaiu. If there are any cou¬ 
sins who had luck with the Japan Red Bud, 
I wish t hey would send me. some seed, as mine 
did not grow. 1 planted them in a tub with 
my pinks, but they did not come out. I 
would like to have Alma Allen write to me. 
I see in a Rural a while ago that anyone 
could become a member by sending their 
name and address, so please accept me as a 
member aud I will try and do better with the 
next seed. I will have to close or this will 
reach the waste basket. Your niece, 
Dexter, N. Y, Ella Patrick. 
Dear Uncle Mark: I am a little boy nine 
yea is old, and would like to be enrolled as a 
member of the Horticultural Club. My papa 
is a farmer and takes the Rural, which we all 
like very much. I love to read the letters 
from the cousins, and have wanted to join the 
Club for a long time, but have waited to tell 
I you about my llowers and also about the seed 
you sent my papa last Spring. The White 
Elephant Potatoes were beauties. The potato 
you sent weighed four ounces; papa dug 42*^ 
pounds, several of the tubers weighing over 
one pound each. I have a little plot of land 
papa gave me last year, where I cultivate 
flowers and vegetables. I have roses, dahlias, 
geraniums, asters, petunias, poppies and lilies. 
Mamma gave me the pinks yoifpent; they 
grew well and were all very double. I have 
eight kinds. Ought 1 to remove them to 
the cellar this Winter. [No; cover them a 
little.—U. M.] I also have some very nice 
Surprise Melons, and citron, pop-coni and 
beans in my little garden. I have no little 
brother or sister, but I have my flow-era to 
amuse me. Mamma has a good many green¬ 
house plants. She has given me a few slips, 
so 1 shull have some flowers this Winter, and 
hope by reading the Rural to learn more 
about cultivating them. Your nephew, 
Milford, N. Y. Arthur Cummings. 
Uncle Mark: —Pa subscribed for your 
paper last February and is well pleased with 
it; he takes five other papers, but says yours 
is the best of all. I and little brother Tommy 
wish to have our names enrolled in the Rural 
Horticultural Club. I am 13 aud he is five 
years old. I help pa on the farm during the 
day and study my lessons at night. I can 
plough, harrow, hoe, pick cotton, pull peanuts 
and make myself generally useful. Pa says it 
is “ root, liog, or die.” I prefer rooting to 
dying. Pa intends giving us a plot of land to 
cultivate next year. 1 have three-fourths of 
an acre in peanuts and cotton this year, but 
owing to dry weather they made short crops. 
Peanuts in this section are about one-half a 
crop, cotton, two-thirds and corn three-fourths 
of an average crop, John R. Peebles. 
Disputanta, Va. 
Dear Uncle Mark: —May I join your large 
band of Cousins? Pa has taken the Rural 
ever so long. lie took it when it was “ Moore's 
Rural New-Yorker.” He received the seeds 
sent him, and gave me the dianthus, picotees 
and carnation seeds. All that I planted in 
the house and then transplanted grow nice¬ 
ly and are blooming. One bunch of dianthus 
had about 35 blossoms on it at once; another 
of picotees had about 24 blossoms. A ques¬ 
tion: Do we (in Iowa) have to take them out 
of the ground iu Winter, or leave them in and 
cover them up ! I should not like to lose them. 
I never had any flowers before this year, but 
I had splendid luck and hope to have better 
next year. If I do I will write and tell you 
of it. “ Country Girl.” 
Springville, Iowa. 
[Your plants will live out-of-doors this Win¬ 
ter, if covered.—u. m.] 
Dear Uncle Mark:—I shall lie glad to 
join the Horticultural club. My father in¬ 
tends to take the Rural, and the Detroit Free 
Press next year. We take the Rural this 
year, aud like it very much. It was almost 
too late in the season before wo thought much 
about the seed that was sent free to subscrib¬ 
ers. My father likes the looks of the Rural 
Dent Corn very much ; but he thinks we live 
too fur north for it to mature. Do 3-011 not 
think it would be nice to have the photo¬ 
graphs of all your nephews and nieces t [Most 
certainly Ido. U. M.l Inm willing to give 
you mine if the rest of my cousins are. I 
would like to know what you or my cousins 
think of it. Your niece. Lizzie Miller. 
Frankfort, Out. 
- ♦♦♦ - 
New Members of the Club for Week 
Ending Nov, 20. 
Hattie Stone, Ray Arbuckla, Ellen Ar- 
buekle, Alma Feazell, Eva L, Feazell, Duncan 
Campbell, Mary Dowling, Elsie Bacon, Robert 
Easton, Thompson Easton, Anna Underwood, 
George Underwood, Lucia Lightfoot, Clarence 
Buckley, May Burris, Stella Davenport, 
Dewitt, Davenport. 
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trade 
KIM 
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