CLOVER AND ALFALFA 277 



graze the rye-grass down and then by resting the pasture for two 

 weeks, it was at least as good as average grass. When growing 

 lambs for early summer market, the two weeks of early grazing is 

 important and it may pay well to have a small pasture composed 

 of some mixture such as the one mentioned here. 



Clover and alfalfa may be classed either as pasture or as forage 

 crops. On account of being so watery while very young they are 

 best in feeding value when above six inches in height. Except 

 for a tendency to cause bloat, both are good feed for sheep and 

 lambs. There is little danger of the lambs bloating, however, so 

 long as they are getting milk. There are fewer fatal cases of 

 bloat from clover than from alfalfa; in fact, sheepmen are not 



FIG. 181. On the blue grass. 



much afraid of clover, but they are afraid of alfalfa. Clover seldom 

 causes severe bloating except when it is very wet, but alfalfa in any 

 condition will develop bad cases. Some of the worst cases have been 

 caused by grazing in the afternoons when everything except the 

 green alfalfa plants was dried and parched. The danger is greatest, 

 however, when the alfalfa is wet, and no matter what condition it is 

 in, it is inadvisable to turn the sheep on it when they are very 

 hungry. It is said that there will not be so much bloating if sheep 

 are kept on alfalfa all the time while it is being grazed. 



Alfalfa is freakish in causing bloat. Flocks may have no losses 

 from it in one season and then suffer severe losses the next. A 

 prominent sheepman in the western part of the United States who 

 uses alfalfa extensively as pasture, said, upon being asked whether 

 he lost many sheep from bloat : " Oh, in some summers I hang lots 

 of pelts on the barbed wire, and in others, none." 



Keeping alfalfa grazed down close will kill it. This, together 

 with its tendency to cause bloat, does not permit it to be regarded as 



