344 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



are potatoes and sweet corn. Certain broadcasted crops 

 will also leave the land in good shape for alfalfa, among 

 them field peas and cowpeas. 



408. Pasturing alfalfa. Alfalfa may be pastured to 

 all kinds of live stock, but this is rarely done in regions 

 where the hay commands a good price, excepting when the 

 field has become weedy. In the eastern United States 

 pasturing will nearly always result in great injury to the 

 stand of alfalfa, but in the West this difficulty is not so 

 serious. It is best not to pasture alfalfa during the first 

 two seasons, and even old fields cannot be pastured heavily 

 without injuring the stand. 



Hogs are most often employed in pasturing alfalfa and 

 injure it less than other live stock. Where, however, the 

 soil is loose, it is well to ring their noses to prevent rooting. 

 Horses and sheep are most injurious to alfalfa plants, as 

 they eat the young buds from the crowns. Both sheep 

 and cattle are likely to become affected with bloat or 

 hoven when upon alfalfa pasture. This danger is appar- 

 ently lessened by not allowing the animals to go on the 

 pasture when the alfalfa is wet with rain or dew. Neither 

 should hungry cattle be turned in alfalfa so that they will 

 gorge themselves, as this is particularly likely to cause 

 bloat. The danger is always present, however, and so 

 large that cautious farmers do not consider alfalfa a proper 

 plant for pasturing valuable animals. 



Fields of mixed alfalfa and grass are much better for 

 pasturing cattle and sheep than alfalfa alone, as such a 

 mixture is much less likely to cause bloating. Orchard- 

 grass is well adapted to such a mixture in the more humid 

 states ; and brome-grass in the region west of the longitude 

 96 and north of the latitude 37. Kentucky blue-grass 

 should not be sown, as it tends to crowd out the alfalfa, 



