175 



mented by other food, such as maize g-rain, barley, and wheat bran 

 or iniddHngs. The College of Hawaii has obtained very suc- 

 cessful results with manienie pasture and the following daily 

 ration : 



Wheat bran, 5 lbs. ; rolled barley, 3 lbs. 



Alfalfa meal, 4 lbs. ; green alfalfa, 20 lbs. 



Alfalfa does not make good pasture, as it cannot stand heavy 

 trampling and constant close cropping. There is little danger of 

 bloat if the animals are turned on to the field when it is moist 

 with dew, and, besides, the crop is too valuable to be wasted by 

 pasturing. 



A very good mixture for the silo or for roughage is one part of 

 alfalfa to two parts of green field-corn or sorghum. This mix- 

 ture does not only pack better in the silo, but it is also very well 

 liked by the animals, milch cows especially. 



ECONOMIC VALUE AS AN AGRICULTURAL CROP. 



Alfalfa is the queen of nitrogen-gathering legumes. The plants 

 not only work for nothing for themselves, but will also pay for the 

 privilege. 



It is a crop that needs very little attention when once estab- 

 lished, which under favorable conditions may be after the first 

 few months, and it lasts a long- time. Its recjuirements are few, 

 and it not only fits very readily into rotation with corn, sorghum 

 and other non-leguminous crops, but also furnishes a large amount 

 of that most costly food material protein. It not only restores 

 the fertility of the land through its nitrogen gathering organisms, 

 but always leaves it in g^ood physical condition and with few 

 weeds. Once established, the field becomes a constant source of 

 food to be had for the cutting and, in dry weather, a little irriga- 

 tion and tillage, and it excels all other forage crops from t!ic 

 standpoint of yield, feeding value, and cost of production. 



Cost of production is the item of greatest importance, regardless 

 of the thing produced. This was one of the main features of the 

 experiment with alfalfa at the College of Hawaii, for no complete 

 Hawaiian reports on this particular phase have as yet come under 

 the writer's notice. The alfalfa growers in and about Honolulu 

 have not taken the trouble to obtain accurate figures regarding 

 either yields per acre or cost of production. 



Bulletin 22 of the Nevada Station gives the following as the 

 cost of growing one acre of alfalfa hay in 1909 : 



Interest and taxes or rent $ 5.196 



Labor of cutting and stacking 4.878 



Interest and depreciation on machinery 256 



Total cost per acre $10.33 



Average yield, 3.3 tons. Cost per ton, $3.10. 



