436 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



To sum up the situation, one might say that with proper precaution 

 horses and mules thrive on alfalfa pasture, but from the standpoint of 

 economy and profit it is not a good practice to pasture alfalfa when the 

 value of the plant, the value of a good stand, and the cost of reseeding is 

 taken into consideration. These conclusions are in keeping with the 

 experiences of our most successful Kansas horsemen, who have given 

 these matters particular attention and study. (See "Horses and Mules," 

 in index.) 



ALFALFA AS A POULTRY FEED. 



By W. A. LIPPINCOTT, Professor of Poultry Husbandry, 

 Kansas State Agricultural College. 



Alfalfa finds a place in two of the four divisions of the poultry ration. 

 A poultry ration is for convenience classified into grains, green feed, 

 mash, and mineral feed. Alfalfa is one of the very best forms of green 

 feed that can be furnished, and is also very freely used in the ground 

 or mealed form in the mash. As a green feed or succulence, alfalfa must 

 be considered from the standpoint of its medicinal or hygienic value 

 rather than from the standpoint of nutrition. Alfalfa, in common with 

 the legumes in general, possesses a much higher feed value than many of 

 the other forms of green feed, such as mangel beets, kale, cabbage, rape 

 and the like. Some green stuff should always be given fowls as a separate 

 feed where it is at all possible to do so. The alfalfa meal fed in the mash 

 does not take the place of the fresh greenness. 



During the spring and summer the best way to feed it is to allow the 

 birds to pasture upon it. Besides having a desirable effect upon the 

 digestive tract, it serves as an appetizer, adds variety to the ration, and 

 tends to give a good color to the yolk, owing to the iron which it contains. 

 It has been frequently claimed by commercial egg men that alfalfa is 

 responsible for an undesirable condition in eggs which appears in the 

 spring, known as "green whites," or "grass eggs." At the Kansas Sta- 

 tion, however, Mauer and Harris kept six Barred Plymouth Rock hens in 

 an alfalfa field for several weeks. The birds were given no feed beyond 

 that which they secured in the alfalfa field itself, and which was largely 

 made up of alfalfa and grasshoppers. The eggs from half the hens were 

 subjected to careful inspection and bacterial analysis. Half the eggs 

 were kept at room temperature and blood temperature for four weeks, 

 and were then broken into white porcelain dishes and examined for 

 greenish discoloration. No "grass eggs" were found. The half of the 

 eggs which was subjected to bacterial analysis was found to contain no 

 pigment-producing organisms. More recently a pigment-forming organ- 

 ism has been isolated from "green whites" by the Bureau of Chemistry 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, which accounts for 

 them, but which has nothing at all to do with alfalfa. There is no reason 

 at all why birds should not be allowed to pasture freely upon it. In fact, 

 in the western part of the state it has been frequently shown during 

 grasshopper years that both chickens and turkeys may be pastured on the 

 alfalfa fields by the use of portable colony houses, and thrive on the grass- 



