ALI, ABOUT AI,FAI,FA. 345 



will, of course, depend largely upon the characfter of 

 the water-supply. 



Feeding Value. — Alfalfa hay is forty-five per cent, 

 better than clover, and sixty per cent, better than 

 timothy. To secure a good milk ration by the use of 

 timothy hay, protein must be supplied from some other 

 source, in order to secure a ration that will give a suffi- 

 cient amount of that material without entailing a loss 

 of carbohydrates and fat ; clover hay, however, is a 

 fairly good ration in itself, and can be economically 

 used without the addition of any other compounds ; 

 alfalfa hay, on the other hand, requires the addition of 

 large amounts of both fat and carbohydrates in order 

 to be profitably utilized as a milk ration. This fa(5l 

 renders alfalfa more serviceable than its valuation 

 would indicate, since, in the management of farms 

 either for dairy purposes or for grain farming, an ex- 

 cess of carbohydrates is secured, which in the great 

 majority of cases is wasted. Under ordinary conditions 

 two and a half pounds of protein, four- tenths of a 

 pound of fat, and twelve and a half pounds of carbo- 

 hydrates can be profitably fed daily to a cow of one 

 thousand pounds live weight. One ton of alfalfa hay, 

 containing 35.3 pounds of digestible fat, 280.1 pounds 

 of digestible protein, and 770.7 pounds of digestible 

 carbohydrates would furnish sufficient protein for one 

 hundred and twelve days, fat for eighty-eight days, 

 and carbohydrates for sixty-one. Therefore, in order 

 to feed this amount of alfalfa economically and profit- 

 ably, fat sufficient for twenty- four days and carbo- 

 hydrates for fifty-one days must be added from some 

 other source, such as cornstalks, green fodder corn, or 



