[f. SOIL v.4]
1. The action or practice of feeding horses, cows, etc., on fresh-cut green fodder, originally in order to cause purgation.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 330. For this purgation is most necessary for Horsses, which is called soyling, and ought to continue ten daies together, without any other meat.
1770. Pennant, Brit. Zool., IV. 48. They [sc. Persian horses] are fed with chopped straw,… and instead of soiling, are fed with new-eared or green barley.
1799. Washington, Writ. (1893), XIV. 225. For Spring, summer, and autumn, it is expected, that soiling of them on green food … will enable them to perform their work.
1832. Scoreby Farm Rep., 27, in Husb. (L.U.K.), III. By the practice of soiling, an arable farm may be made to support as much live stock as a grazing one.
1893. Times, 11 July, 4/1. Oats put in [among rye] promptly would give food for soiling or cutting in the autumn.
attrib. 1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 193/1. Those countries where the soiling system is most universally adopted.
2. dial. (See quot.)
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Soiling, the last fattening food given to fowls when they are taken up from the stack or barn-door, and cooped for a few days.
