EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII. 311 



want to get something for a nurse crop or weeds, and I can get 

 more out of a nurse crop than out of weeds. Cut the barley early 

 and let the alfalfa alone from that time on. If the weeds come 

 up pay no attention to them. The next year three cuttings of 

 alfalfa will kill the weeds. In addition to this, if you are in a 

 section of the country where the bacterial condition of the soil 

 is not favorable to alfalfa, get from some old alfalfa grower about 

 three or four hundred pounds of soil and scatter it over the land 

 when you sow your alfalfa in the spring. 



Now, gentlemen, this alfalfa is a wonderful crop. With thirty- 

 five pounds of corn ensilage and ten pounds of alfalfa hay I can 

 almost close the circuit in a perfect ration and all I need as a key- 

 stone is just 50 per cent of the usual grain ration. My cows are 

 going through the advanced register today on thirty pounds of 

 ensilage and five to ten pounds of alfalfa hay, four pounds ajx 

 fiakes and one pound of ground meal. That is a heavier ration 

 than I would feed if they were not going through the advanced 

 register, but if I had no alfalfa I would be feeding from eight to 

 ten pounds of grain ration a day, so the alfalfa enables me to cut 

 down one-half the cost of my grain ration. Let me give you an 

 illustration drawn from my own experience. I have a herd of forty 

 registered cows. Last year from thirty-seven of them (that was 

 the size of the herd) they gave me 7,499 pounds of milk, making an 

 average of 425 pounds of butter or $101 worth of butter; counting 

 the skim milk worth $16.20 per cow, the average would be $117.20 

 per cow, and the keeping cost me $34.25. Cast up the balance 

 yourselves. 



Mr. Winkjer: Does alfalfa fed to cows have any influence on 

 the quality of the milk? 



Gov. Hoard: Only to increase the amount. It produces no 

 flavor or anything of that kind. 



Mr. Ball: Have you a recipe you could give us to get good 

 alfalfa? We would like to know how to get it. 



Gov. Hoard : I can give you no answer to that except to say that 

 it is a good deal like Christianity, it is exceedingly fine when you 

 •get it. 



Member: What is the comparative value of an acre of clover 

 and an acre of alfalfa? 



Gov. Hoard: I will come at that from two standpoints. The 

 alfalfa contains 11 per cent of digestible protein, and that is the 

 element you always want; the clover contains 6.8 per cent, nearly 



