158 CLOVERS 



North Atlantic States, where the manure thus ap- 

 plied will prove greatly helpful to the growth of the 

 alfalfa during the following season. These precau- 

 tions to guard against the severity of winter 

 weather are not nearly so necessary in the Rocky 

 Mountain States where irrigation is practiced. In 

 these, alfalfa spring sown is sometimes pastured 

 during the following winter, and without any great 

 harm to the crop. Thus greatly do conditions vary. 



It may also be well to remember that where rain- 

 fall is usually plentiful and sometimes excessive, 

 that a better stand of the young plants can be ob- 

 tained when the rainfall is moderate than when it 

 is copious. Saturated ground is hurtful to the 

 young plants. They will not grow properly under 

 such conditions and are likely to assume a sickly 

 appearance. Mildew may appear and the plants 

 may fail in patches. And this may happen on land 

 which will ordinarily produce reasonably good crops 

 of alfalfa after they have once been established. 



The value of alfalfa in providing pasture is more 

 restricted than in providing hay. This arises in 

 part from the injury which may come to the plants 

 from grazing too closely at certain times, and in a 

 greater degree from injury which may result to cer- 

 tain animals which may feed upon the plants, more 

 especially cattle and sheep, through bloating, to 

 which it frequently gives rise. 



This plant is pre-eminently a pasture for swine. 

 They may be grazed upon it with profit all the sea- 

 son, from spring until fall. No plant now grown 

 in the United States will furnish so much grazing 



