272 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



gains are sometimes secured. They come to tHe 

 markets of Kansas City, Omaha and Chicago in solid 

 trainloads, and owing to their good quality and 

 even ripeness they sell at the top of the market. 



There seems a distinct quality of goodness dif- 

 fused through an alfalfa-fed lamb, and it is difficult 

 to make as good on any other ration. The health- 

 fulness of the diet is attested by the very great even- 

 ness of lots of alfalfa-fed lambs, though this is in 

 part accounted for by the regularity and moderation 

 of the feeding. 



There are other alfalfa feeding districts in Kan- 

 sas and Nebraska where the business is carried on 

 very much as in Colorado, having almost as good 

 weather, though not usually as good alfalfa. This 

 is owing to the greater liability of rain falling on 

 Nebraska and Kansas alfalfa and to the careless 

 methods of haymakers caused in part by scarcity of 

 labor. Corn is plentiful in these feeding yards and 

 is sometimes fed with greater freedom than in Colo- 

 rado, though without corresponding increase in 

 gain. The truth is that a lamb cannot be forced as 

 a pig can by feeding an excess of grain; he should 

 make a large part of his growth from coarse forage, 

 and overfeeding with grain is a dangerous proposi- 

 tion. 



Then there are regions where men attempt to fat- 

 ten lambs with wild prairie hay or sorghum, with 

 corn. Large, well-developed lambs will finish fairly 

 well on such rations, though at considerably greater 

 cost than when alfalfa is fed. 



