EXPBRIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 301 



Another method which has been tried with good results is to feed the 

 stock with enough other rough feed before turning into the alfalfa, 

 so that they will eat rather sparingly of the green alfalfa. 



Alfalfa makes an ideal pasture crop for hogs and poultry and if 

 properly managed is very satisfactory for horses and mules. Because 

 of its nutritive qualities and the satisfactory growth throughout the 

 entire season, these classes of stock will thrive well on alfalfa pasture 

 and a certain amount of stock can be kept on a much smaller acreage 

 probably, than any other pasture crop suited to Michigan conditions. 



The alfalfa pasture should be managed quite differently from the 

 common practice with grass pastures, that is, it should not be kept 

 eaten down closely throughout the season. This will kill many of the 

 plants and present favorable conditions for grasses and other weeds to 

 come in and take possession of the field. The best management, prob- 

 ably, would be to have several lots and to turn enough stock into a lot 

 to eat off the growth in a short time and then to turn the stock into a 

 new field. If only one field is available the alfalfa should be kept from 

 six to ten inches or more high all the time, or if eaten down closely, 

 the stock should be turned out long enough for the alfalfa to make 

 a renewed growth. Alfalfa because it does not propagate vegatively, 

 because it is not inclined to spread over the ground and because it does 

 not thrive continuously under close cropping, is not an ideal pasture 

 plant. It will produce more when cut for hay or soiling than when 

 used as pasture. Still because of its productiveness and nutritive qual- 

 ities, it ranks well as a pasture crop, especially when mixed with some 

 of the better grasses and clovers and it is recommended that it be 

 generally seeded in this way for pasture, under soil conditions that are 

 favorable for its development. 



ALFALFA SEED PRODUCTION. 



A very small percentage of the alfalfa growers of the state have at- 

 tempted to grow alfalfa seed, most of them having been content with 

 the growing of the crop for forage purposes. The success, however, 

 with which the few have grown seed and the amount of seed commonly 

 produced by scattered plants which have not been mown for hoy, in- 

 dicate that Michigan conditions are very favorable for the production of 

 alfalfa seed. The following conditions seem to favor the production of 

 seed; rather dry, sunshiny weather from the beginning of bluom until 

 the maturity of seed; soils that are rather light and of only medium 

 fertility, such as manv of our sandv soils; and the thin stands which 

 will allow the wind and sunlight to strike the sides of the plants as 

 well as the tops. If alfalfa is grown primarily for the seed, it should 

 be planted in rows about twenty-eight or thirty inches apart and culti- 

 vated. The demand for home grown seed should make this a very 

 profitable enterprise on the lighter types of soils. Profitable crops of 

 alfalfa seed may, however, be produced under certain conditions in the 

 thickly seeded fields. The second crop of the season is the one to save 

 for seed in Michigan, as this allows the cutting of one hay crop and 

 presents more favorable weather conditions for the filling of the soed 

 crop. The third cutting develops too late in the season to mature the 

 maximum amount of seed. 



