386 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



alfalfa is a protein food. The chemist shows that in the leaves and fine 

 stems of well cured alfalfa hay the protein is just about as abundant as 

 in wheat bran. Those who feed alfalfa hay find by actual experience 

 that the work of the analyst is fully substantiated. Alfalfa hay can 

 be fed to horses in reasonable quantity, thereby cutting down the allow- 

 ance of bats or bran these animals otherwise require. It is par excel- 

 lence the food for the dairy cow and with her will practically take the 

 place of bran altogether. The wonderful results obtained in fattening 

 lambs on alfalfa around Fort Collins. Colo., and other leading districcs, 

 show this plant to be equally helpful in putting on the highest finish 

 with those animals. Hogs and chickens eat the dry alfalfa leaves as 

 though they were feeding on grain itself. This material fills up the 

 digestive tract with a nutritious substance, often serving a better pur- 

 pose than would a limited supply of highly concentrated grain. 



It is all right to feed bran and middlings, but the farmer should not 

 put himself under the yoke of the miller forever and become his abject 

 slave when he has so grand an ally in the protein-producing alfalfa 

 plant. Let everyone who is tired of paying from sixteen to twenty dol- 

 lars per ton for wheat bran make a start at an alfalfa field. Never 

 mind about the infected dirt. If you can get dirt from an established 

 alfalfa field it m.ay be wise enough to scatter it over the field, but do 

 not let the absence of such bacteria-infected soil deter you from the at- 

 tempt. Observe these simple rules: Do not sow alfalfa on wet, sour 

 land; it must be well drained. Give it rich ground. No plant will 

 yield such crops of forage; therefore do not be a niggard with it in the 

 niatter of soil. Make a garden seed bed. Let the weeds start and then 

 harrow them a time or two. Sow at least twenty pounds of seed to the 

 acre. Use beardless barley or oats as nurse crop and cut it for hay. 

 You will thus get immediate return from your field. Or if the season 

 supplies ample moisture the grain may be allowed to ripen. When the 

 nurse-crop is removed keep weeds back with the mower. If you will 

 fight the weeds the first season the alfalfa will smother them the sec- 

 ond. Cut the alfalfa when about one tenth of the field is in bloom. 

 Do not let it all come into bloom. Treat alfalfa as you do red clover and 

 you will likely lose it. Let it alone to fight the weeds the first season and 

 failure is almost certain. Do not be stingy of your care; it will abundantly 

 repay you. 



From alfalfa the farmer may secure the protein requirements for 

 his stock at far less cost than in the past. The great problem now con- 

 fronting our stockmen is the more economical maintenance of farm ani- 

 mals and the cheaper production of milk, beef, pork and mutton. Our 

 study of breeding higher quality animals must parallel an equally in- 

 tense study of producing on the farm so far as possible all the feed- 

 stuff our animals require. 



