The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-06
FARM,
soiIing Versus Pasturine.

The practice of "soiling" is not much
followed in the South yet. 1t is a
feature of intensive farming. 1t is
more a practice in old countries where
land is high, where the farms are
small, and where the live stock is bet
ter and more valuable, and it might
be added, where labor is cheaper, but
the question of labor need not bear
upon the availability of the practice
so much as other considerations. Even
with high-priced labor the practice
may be found economical when all its
advantages are considered.
Soiling. which is a term coming to us
from the French, means cutting the
green food and feeding it to stock in
their stalls or lots instead of allowing
them to pasture the green crop. 1t is
not clearly expressive term, to be
sure, and it is not surprising that the
careless reader, unfamiliar with the
practice, should fail to grasp at once
the meaning of the term. We know
that some fairly intelligent farmers
have accepted it as meaning turning
under green crops instead of feeding
the green crops as above stated.
As it is a term that will remain no
doubt We should understand its signif-
canoe.
So long as land is abundant it does
seem to involve less care AMI labor
simply to turn the stock-horses, mules,
cattle, into the pasture and let them
wander over it nipping here and nip
filled.
Pasturing is a very wasteful process.
From first to last in a season a large
part of the crop is destroyed by the
tramplng of stock. Another part is
rendered unpalatable by the solid and
liquid eXcrement of the stock. If
pastured when wet there is a decided
injury resulting to the soil from tram
pling. Stock out at pasture are
out of sight of the owner or care
taker. This may or may not be a con-
sideration.
Take most any crop that may be used
for soilin@ and it will be found that
the product of one acre cut and carried
TO stock in their stalls or lots will
furnish more palatable food than
would several acres where the stock
are allowed to roam over the field de-
stroying or rendering unpalatable ev-
cry day a good deal more than they
consume
Even with Bermuda grass pasture
which furnishes exceptional condi-
lions for pasturing, there would be
much gained if the practice of close
pasturing could be done away with for
the more economical method of treat
ing it as a soiling crop. If instead of
turning stock on the young grass as
soon as it affords nip they should be
Kept off of it until the grass was high
enough TO allow of being cut with a
mower there would be more food Sc
cured from one acre than four would
furnish under grazing and there would
be no waste of energy of the stock in
getting it.
Bermuda grass as a pasture plant is
Indeed exceptional Owing 20 its habit
OF growth above and below the sur
face there is less loss involved in
stock trampling upon it than in the
case of such crops as lucern, peas.
clover fodder-corn and some other up
right growers that are easily killed by
the feet of stock and the land is less
injured by the trampling even when it
is wet, which is an item. OF all the
plants adapted to soiling there is none
other quite the equal of lucern and
there is little doubt of the fact that
one acre soiled would furnish more food
than several acres pastured. This
plant is probably more injured by graz
ing and trampling than any other. 1t
VIII furnish soiling food later in the
fall and earlier in the spring than any
other plant that we could use.
For soiling from June to October
there is no plant that will furnish
larger quantity Of green forage than
corn drilled three bushels of seeds to
the acre, having the rows two and
a half or three feet apart and cultivat-
ing the crop two or three times. Fod-
der corn is the most reliable soiling
crop that we can have in the summer
time. For late fall and early spring
soiling there is. as stated, nothing quite
the equal Of lucern.
BY sowing rye in the very early fall
1t is possible TO have a small ration of
green food almost during the entire
winter If rich land is used and the
rye is sown thickly in twenty-inch
drills and cultivated once or twice Just
after ii comes up in September or early
october ii will be found a far more
valuable crop for the purpose than il
is when carelessly sown broadcast, as
is usually done.
Selling is a practice that leads to the
gradual but sure enrichng of the farm
on which IT is followed. 1t depends up