Alfalfa in Kansas. 445 



day would undoubtedly cause quite a number of these large concerns to 

 discontinue business. 



The total production of alfalfa meal in the principal milling states,, 

 exclusive of California, is estimated, by those in best position to know, 

 at something over 200,000 tons annually. Of this Colorado produces 

 about one-half, Wyoming 40,000 tons, Nebraska 25,000 tons, Kansas 

 20,000 tons, New Mexico and Oklahoma each 10,000 tons. 



The southern states are ordinarily expected to consume 65 to 70 per 

 cent of this output, though this year, owing to an abundance of home- 

 grown grain and forage crops, a smaller quantity will doubtless suffice. 

 The central and eastern states furnish a market for the rest. 



But, as has already been described, the meal now reaches the con- 

 sumer almost entirely as an ingredient of a balanced mixed feed. There- 



FIG. 366. A good plant that never turned a wheel, owing to lack of alfalfa. 

 The machinery and equipment were hauled overland from the railroad forty miles 

 away. 



fore the meal miller looks to the mixed-feed concerns located at large 

 distributing centers for his market. Eight such plants in St. Louis con- 

 sume about 60,000 tons of meal annually, while others are located at such 

 points as Kansas City, Omaha, Chicago, Memphis, Nashville, Pittsburg, 

 Peoria, New Orleans, Atlanta and Milwaukee. Several concerns, located 

 principally at Kansas City, Omaha and Council Bluffs, specialize in a 

 straight alfalfa meal and molasses mixture, which they sell direct to 

 large cattle feeders or to mixed-feed concerns, which incorporate still 

 other ingredients before placing the balanced ration on the market. 



All of these balanced rations have a feed value, though some are 

 better than others. Sometimes the reputation of alfalfa meal, which is an 

 honest feed that when unmixed with other products shows for itself just 

 what it is, has not been enhanced by the admixture of screenings, peanut 

 hulls, weed seeds, oat hulls, etc. But with the state and federal au- 

 thorities watching more and more carefully and intelligently the quality 



