148 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



through it makes it a more nearly perfect feed. In 

 America our most common grain, corn, has in it too much 

 starch and not enough protein for feed. If one has then 

 at hand clover or alfalfa hay one can make .a proper bal- 

 ance in rations for stock. Animals are quite largely what 

 they are fed on. Thus ponies come from poor, barren, 

 sour soils having no legumes and only poor grasses ; splen- 

 did horses come from pastures rich in carbonate of lime 

 and growing mixtures of grasses and clovers of several 

 species. The horses raised on alfalfa meadows in Cali- 

 fornia are among the most perfectly developed in the 

 world; the horses of bluegrass Kentucky eat a fine mix- 

 ture of bluegrass and white and red clover. 



Legumes and Grasses Go Together. While it is true 

 that grasses alone are commonly deficient in that essential 

 builder, protein, yet it is also true that the legumes are 

 commonly too rich in protein and an excess of even a 

 good thing may be nearly as harmful as a deficiency. 

 Thus animals bloat on alfalfa pasture and horses fed ex- 

 clusively and heavily on alfalfa hay may become "soft," 

 that is, not enduring, through fatigue caused by an excess 

 of the very thing in their blood that would build if fed 

 only in right amount. So it is true that animals graz- 

 ing clovers or alfalfa are ravenously hungry for grass 

 and if allowed access to it or if grass is grown mixed 

 with the clover or alfalfa they will not often bloat. Like- 

 wise animals pastured on grass are ravenous for clover 

 or alfalfa, nature seeming to teach them what should be 

 their diet properly to nourish the whole animal. Diversi- 

 fication is good for soils as variety for stock. 



