26 



current prices [1902] 8 pounds of bran and shorts or 3.6 pounds of oats 

 per day, and this amount with 20 pounds of alfalfa will make a better 

 maintenance ration than ttO pounds of alfalfa. Aside from the finan- 

 cial consideration it should be emphasized that if digestive disorders 

 are to be entirely avoided concentrated foods must make up part of 

 the diet of the horse. 



Considered as a whole the experiments are very favorable to the 

 use of alfalfa hay as a coarse fodder for horses. The fact is recog- 

 nized that, like other leguminous crops, it contains a larger amount 

 of protein in proportion to its bulk than timothy. Feeding alfalfa 

 did not exercise any bad effects on the health of the horses. It is 

 stated that attacks of colic and other digestive disorders can be pre- 

 vented b}^ a judicious system of feeding. The amount of hay fed on 

 most Utah farms, it is believed, could be reduced at least one-half. 

 It may be economical to reduce the amount of ha}^ and increase the 

 amount of grain fed to horses. In this connection the author saj^s: 



It is folly to claim that a horse will not eat more than is necessary if allowed the 

 liberty of the stack and the grain bin. The argument is sometimes made that a 

 horse under natural conditions, on pasture, never eats more than is necessary, and 

 that under these conditions he is never subject to digestive disorders. While this is 

 undoubtedly true, it must be kept in mind that as soon as we stable the horse and 

 require work of him, we have taken him away from his natural condition and placed 

 him under unnatural environments. 



It was observed that larger amounts of water were consumed on the 

 alfalfa ration and that the amount of urine excreted was also larger 

 and had a higher specific gravity. The excess, however, was never 

 found great enough to cause any inconvenience. These experiments 

 at the Utah Station are especially interesting since they confirm the 

 results of twelve years' practical tests of the feeding value of alfalfa. 

 During this period the station horses have always received this 

 material as a coarse fodder, except when they were fed other rations 

 for experimental purposes. 



From a study of the comparative digestibility of alfalfa hay and 

 meadow hay by horses, Miintz and Girard" concluded that the former 

 is superior as regards nitrogenous constituents and the latter as regards 

 carbohydrates. 



In studies at the Wyoming Station, undertaken by F. E. Emery* to 

 determine what constituted maintenance rations for horses performing 

 little work, alfalfa hay constituted the principal feed, no grain being 

 supplied. It was found that farm horses required to perform very 

 little work maintained their weight on an average daily ration, per 

 1,000 pounds live weight, of 13.75 pounds alfalfa ha}^ and 2.25 pounds 

 oat straw. A driving horse maintained his weight on a daily ration 

 of 17.71 pounds alfalfa hay and 2. 83 pounds oat straw per 1,000 pounds 

 live weight. 



«Ann. Agron., 24 (1898), p. 5. ^Wyoming Station Press Buls. n. ser. 5, 10. 



