Foil HETTEli Cliurs fil 



Rockies spread their life g"ivin«,^ waters over the fertile plains. 

 There alfalfa is at its best estate, and nothin^^ else is (juite so 

 profitable, savint^ perhaps the crops that naturally follow on 

 alfalfa sod— su^^ar beets, melons, or truck. Enormous amounts 

 of alfalfa hay are stacked up on these plains where the long-, dry 

 summers favor hay making- oi)erations very greatly, and wlien 

 winter comes the lambs are bought and placed in feed lots, and 

 fed till spring on alfalfa hay with a little Nebraska or Kansas 

 corn or native barley or wheat. These lambs often come from 

 the ranges half starved, having perhaps endured long drives and 

 been held in corrals and shipping pens until they are little more 

 than bones strung on end, but after they have eaten alfalfa hay 

 for a time they become strong once more and ready to make 

 good use of corn. 



Alfalfa Fed Beef Cattle — What has been said of the mare 

 and of the ewe applies as well to the beef cow. If she has a 

 sutficiency of alfalfa in winter she needs no grain at all. After 

 her calf comes she may have a little grain, and she and the calf, 

 all the alfalfa they care to take. Her calf should be developed 

 largely on alfalfa. It may eat alfalfa hay every day of its life, 

 may be soiled with alfalfa during the growing season, may possibly 

 be grazed on alfalfa pasture; though by far the better way is to 

 cut the alfalfa and bring it to the calf. By this manner of feed- 

 ing good flesh is produced and stature assured. It is too common 

 among breeders of beef cattle in the corn belt to confine their 

 animals to rations composed mainly of corn and grass, neither 

 having in them enough protein, thus there is a steady loss in 

 size, in ''scale," the animals soon become fat, undersized, ''bunty" 

 and "bunchy." The difficulty is that you have been asking 

 hnpossibilities of the animal, asking it to make bricks without 

 straw, or to build without bricks at all. Therefore breeders of 

 pedigreed cattle find it necessary to have frequent recourse to 

 Canadian and English herds to maintain the character of their 

 own. In these other lands less corn and more clover and other 

 foods rich in protein are fed than in our own. There is blood 

 In a turnip. There is blood and form and breeding in alfalfa, a 

 plant that gives character to whatever it becomes. Therefore, 

 let the breeder of beef cattle see to it that alfalfa is one of his 

 chief reliances. 



Alfalfa for Feeding Steers — Fattening cattle might be 

 thought to be an exception to the rule heretofore insisted upon; 

 they are desired to be fattened as rapidly as possible, why. there- 

 fore, need they be fed any foods rich in protein? Why not feed 

 them in the old-fashioned way with corn alone, to quickly cover 

 their ribs, and then let them go forward to market? 



The theory sounds well, but does not work well in practice. 

 These animals find waste going on in their own systems> 



