AS A PASTURE PLANT. 337 



grass pasture will soon be destroyed, without afford- 

 ing a great amount of feed, because stock will hardly 

 eat any other thing while they can get the alfalfa, 

 and it will have no chance to grow at all. It is 

 hardly safe for a man to attempt to pasture his 

 alfalfa while it is in the experimental stage. He 

 should wait until he has established fairly wide 

 breadths of it; then he can set aside portions of it 

 for that purpose. 



Pasturing and Mowing. A combination of pas- 

 turing and mowing off is most economical and 

 satisfactory. Divide the area to be pastured into 

 three lots. Turn out stock on one, and when they 

 have eaten a part of it, turn them to the second en- 

 closure and mow off the first, taking away what they 

 have left. There are always parts of the pasture 

 more palatable than other parts ; animals thus graze 

 unevenly; the mower evens it up, and what was 

 discarded in summer proves to be acceptable in 

 winter. After grazing down the second enclosure 

 sufficiently, the animals will be turned to the third 

 part, while the mower will finish cutting the second 

 lot. Then after a time they will come back to the 

 first enclosure, which will be all evenly grown up 

 and about at the blooming stage. Managed in this 

 way, alfalfa will endure grazing for many years 

 without injury, while if allowed to be eaten close in 

 spots and not eaten at all in other spots, it soon 

 becomes weakened and grass invades it and the 

 good stand is lost. 



