10 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



They were astonishingly prolific sows and gave us 

 great litters of healthy pigs, so many sometimes 

 that we did no-t know what to do with them. The 

 sows were kept penned up nearly the year through 

 and during summer we simply cut alfalfa with a 

 scythe and threw it over 'to them. This kept them 

 in fine thrifty condition and their pigs grew but kept 

 rather lanky on the diet. When fall came we would 

 fatten them off with pumpkins and squashes and 

 alfalfa. In winter time we would vary the diet by 

 giving them dry alfalfa hay and alfalfa leaves. 

 They throve well and it was at first very amusing 

 to see hogs eat alfalfa hay, putting their feet on it 

 to hold it down while they tore it apart with their 

 teeth and chewed it as best they could. It was won- 

 derful to us also to see what fine full udders our 

 milk cows had. Old-fashioned milking Shorthorns 

 they were, of the type that the fathers had. The 

 Mormon settlers had brought with them their best 

 family cows when they came across the range, and 

 we had some of their descendants. We fed these 

 cows only alfalfa hay in winter, and mostly soiled 

 them on green alfalfa in summer, and what splendid 

 foaming pails we carried down from the corral ! We 

 half lived on milk and cream those days, being too 

 busy to make butter. Sometimes we had trouble 

 from alfalfa bloat. That came in the fall, after we 

 had turned -the cows on the meadows and they 

 grazed the alfalfa that had come up since the last 

 mowing and gotten badly frosted. We used to have 

 strenuous times with these old cows, tying sticks in 



