54 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



weeks in the year when cows can be turned 

 loose with safety in an alfalfa meadow. It 

 is no exaggeration to say that there is not 

 a farmer in this vicinity who has not lost 

 one or more cows from the deadly 'alfalfa 

 bloat.' When growing it is very succulent, 

 and the cows eat it greedily the result : 

 bloat and speedy death. Scrub cows suffer 

 comparatively little horses and mules not 

 at all and careful investigation goes to 

 show that the pure-bred or graded Jersey, 

 of small stomach and voracious habits, is the 

 common victim. But the subject of * alfalfa 

 bloat,' the best modes of prevention and cure 

 when a cure is effected is a subject for a 

 treatise ; and when I say that at the meeting 

 of our Farmers' Institute a whole morning 

 was consumed in the animated discussion of 

 how and when to graze cows on alfalfa, bloat 

 and the various modes of prevention thereof, 

 and that scarcely two persons agreed, it may 

 well be seen that the subject is at this point 

 ripe for abandonment. Each ranchman has 

 his own method of dealing with the matter, 

 and considers his the best. 



As alfalfa does not thrive in heavy or 



