Alfalfa in Kansas. 441 



tact with this inflammable dust not infrequently resulted in fires which 

 destroyed a number of plants, and insurance rates became prohibitive, 

 protection for the owner of the more cheaply constructed wooden mills 

 being unobtainable in many instances. 



Marketing difficulties were numerous. Except in the irrigated sec- 

 tions of the alfalfa-producing territory, where rains and dew were largely 

 absent, much of the hay offered at the mills was lacking in the con- 

 ventional "pea-green" shade that, even to-day, the average buyer of 

 alfalfa meal considers vitally essential to the feeding value of the prod- 

 uct. Brown-colored meal was considered meal milled from spoiled hay 

 at first, though of recent years the meal from the "tobacco-cured" or 

 "silo-cured" hay, that western feeders really prefer to the green-cured 

 hay, is recognized in the eastern or southern markets as possessing 

 genuine merit, though a material premium is still offered for meal 

 showing the nearest approach to the appearance of the uncut alfalfa. 



Naturally this preference for alfalfa meal of green color afforded 

 endless opportunity for trouble between the miller and his customers. 

 Even at the larger markets, where the services of official grain or hay 

 inspectors might be available, this difficulty was not appreciably over- 

 come, since these inspectors had had no experience in grading alfalfa 

 meal. Probably no commercial product loaned itself more readily to the 

 creation of honest or dishonest difference of opinion than alfalfa meal, 

 and when a shipment of meal arrived at a point, perhaps a thousand 

 miles from the mill, with the draft representing its value unpaid, and no 

 official inspection obtainable, mutually satisfactory adjustment of such 

 a difference became increasingly difficult. 



The official grades established for alfalfa meal were based both upon 

 color and protein content, but the latter was not usually considered, 

 provided the meal possessed the desired green shade, while a higher 

 percentage of protein could not be depended upon to offset the lack of 

 color. 



Another factor that renders alfalfa milling more hazardous than the 

 milling of flour or other product of grains is the necessity that the 

 operator of an alfalfa mill buy his raw material in competition with 

 the hay dealer or stock feeder, while on his finished product he must 

 compete with the seller of whole or milled grain. Therefore the price 

 paid for alfalfa hay or obtained for the meal often lacked the uni- 

 form relationship that should exist to insure profitable milling. Hay 

 prices may be high, while those for corn or oats may be relatively low. 

 This condition has sometimes resulted in the price of the sacked meal 

 being no higher than that which the baled hay would have brought the 

 same day on the same market. 



The foregoing portrays in some measure the difficulties experienced 

 by those who entered the alfalfa milling industry eight or ten years ago. 

 Three out of every five of the companies then organized are now out of 

 business, while two of every three remaining operate their plants but 

 intermittently. To-day there is but slight inclination manifested to 

 build mills in the rain belt, the new plants being almost invariably 

 located in the irrigated sections of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana or 



