CHAPTER XIV, 



Alfalfa for Horses and Mules 



J. W. Robison, a Kansas breeder of Percherons, who 

 ranks among the foremost anywhere, raises his colts to 

 three years at an average weight of 1700 pounds and his 

 four-year-olds at 1900 pounds, ready for the sale yard, 

 on alfalfa, except such limited quantities of grain as will 

 make it more nearly a properly balanced food, and inci- 

 dentally expedite growth. His opinion, fortified by sixty 

 years of experience, is that alfalfa as pasturage and hay 

 constitutes by far the most excellent and economical 

 frame- and muscle-forming food available to the live 

 stock industry. His colts have alfalfa as their first green 

 food, and, if foaled in winter, are taught in a few days to 

 nibble the cut hay. He also says colts reared mainly on 

 alfalfa have equal spirit and vigor and better dispositions 

 than those given much grain. His brood mares are made 

 to rely on alfalfa as their main ration, and for three 

 months before foaling it is practically, unless in midwin- 

 ter, their only feed. As a result they are always in ideal 

 condition, their colts are delivered easily, the mares give 

 an abundance of nourishing milk, free from feverish ten- 

 dencies, and the colts are robustly rugged from their 

 beginning. The cost of rearing colts and horses by this 



