FEEDING HORSES AND MULES 285 



of stations have carefully investigated this subject, the most ex- 

 tensive inquiry having been conducted at the Utah station. 9 No 

 ill results were noted in these experiments on the health of the 

 horses by long-continued, exclusive feeding of alfalfa. Attacks of 

 colic and other digestive disorders can be prevented by a judicious 

 system of feeding, giving less than the horses will clean up (see 

 above). During these experiments, which were conducted for a 

 period of twelve years, alfalfa formed the sole roughage of all the 

 working and driving horses at the station, except during brief 

 periods when they received other experimental fodders, and not a 

 horse was lost, either directly or indirectly, as a result of feeding 

 alfalfa during this entire period. This is not surprising when we 

 remember that alfalfa forms the only roughage, and often the only 

 feed, throughout the year on thousands upon thousands of farms 

 in the western States, especially in irrigated regions, as it is also 

 the sole feed of dairy cows among many farmers in these regions. 



The Utah station found that 20 pounds of alfalfa hay were 

 sufficient to maintain the weights of horses weighing nearly 1400 

 pounds when at rest ; when at heavy work, 32.6 pounds were barely 

 sufficient to maintain the weights of the same horses. Eesults of 

 trials at the Wyoming station 10 showed that four farm horses re- 

 quired to perform light work maintained their weights on a daily 

 ration of 13 y 2 pounds of alfalfa hay when they had access to a 

 stack of oat straw. In a second test made with two horses it was 

 found that the weights were maintained on an average daily ration 

 of 13.75 pounds alfalfa hay and 2.25 pounds oat straw per 1000 

 pounds live weight. A trial at the Wyoming station with six 

 horses 11 fed during ten one-month periods on alfalfa hay showed 

 a total gain of 203 pounds, while during an equal period on native 

 hay there was a total loss of 84 pounds. The Kansas station con- 

 cluded, from experiments conducted with work horses, that alfalfa 

 hay, when properly fed, is a much more valuable roughage than 

 either timothy or prairie hay, and reduces the cost of the daily 

 ration from 25 to 35 per cent when substituted for either hay and 

 fed with corn and oats. 



It may, therefore, be considered established that alfalfa hay is 

 a good feed for horses fed with other roughage or grain, and, if 

 desired, it may also be fed as sole feed without any ill results. The 

 main precautions to be observed are as follows : The hay must not 



9 Bulletin 77. 



10 Report 12. 



11 Bulletin 98 ; see also Nebraska Extension Bulletin 28. 



