34 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



And what had the farm done that year ? After all 

 the items of sales and expenditure were footed up it 

 was found that the same land that had yielded our 

 father less than $800 had yielded us a net profit of 

 more than $2,500. Alfalfa had worked this miracle. 

 It had given us the hay with which to feed the larger 

 number of lambs, and through the soil enrichment 

 that it had given the fields it had made possible the 

 heavy crop of corn that we had fed to the lambs, so 

 really to alfalfa should be credited both corn and 

 hay. Further, alfalfa had made it possible to con- 

 tinue feeding lambs. When we were beginning, and 

 were almost without alfalfa hay, we had fed largely 

 of oilmeal and wheat bran to balance up the ration. 

 This was necessary; experiment proved that. With- 

 out plenty of digestible protein in the ration the 

 lamb does not gain much. We made good lambs 

 through the aid of the bran and oilmeal, but it cost 

 us too much. When finally we had our own alfalfa 

 hay to furnish protein we made two lots of lambs. 

 They had equal merit in the beginning as near as 

 we could tell, for they were of the same bunch, se- 

 lected to get two like lots. The one pen was fed with 

 timothy hay, with some clover, shredded corn fod- 

 der, corn, wheat bran and a little oilmeal. They 

 grew well, but each pound of gain made cost us 6y 2 c. 

 The second lot was fed with good alfalfa hay and 

 corn only. With them the cost of gain was only 

 31/20. As the price of lambs declined during the 

 nineties we would have had to give up had not al- 

 falfa come to our rescue. 



