142 ARID AGRICULTURE. 







average wheat yields from less than twenty 

 bushels per acre to approximately fifty bushels 

 per acre. Every farmer w 7 ho can grow alfalfa, 

 whether or not he may use the hay for stock feed, 

 should consider this plant the foundation of his 

 rotations in soil culture. 



When used as a fertilizer many farmers sim- 

 ply leave the alfalfa two years. The alfalfa 

 products themselves are so valuable that in most 

 places when a good stand is secured it will pay 

 to let it occupy the ground from three years to 

 seven or eight years, or even much longer 

 periods. 



PASTURING There is objection to the use of alfalfa as 



pasture for three important reasons. First, 

 sheep or cattle pastured on alfalfa are very apt 

 to bloat. The way pasturing is usually done 

 there is a loss of animals, which may make it 

 unprofitable. Sometimes alfalfa hay will cause 

 bloat when overfed to sheep and cattle. The 

 cured hay at high altitudes where the stems are 

 fine and there is a large percentage of leaves is 

 more apt to cause bloat. Undoubtedly the best 

 method of feeding green alfalfa is by soiling, in 

 which the alfalfa is cut and carried to the ani- 

 mals each day. 



The second reason for not pasturing alfalfa 

 is that it injures the plants. Tramping and 

 packing the ground by stock, more especially in 

 regions where alfalfa is hard to grow, may cause 



