ALFALFA FOR POULTRY. 



All sorts of fowls love alfalfa, green or dry. In 

 truth they love it not wisely but too well for the al- 

 falfa when it is a young thing, and unless kept away 

 from it will destroy it. After it has become estab- 

 lished they will not usually injure it unless the al- 

 falfa is a small patch near the poultry runs. It is 

 well to keep them away from the field when the al- 

 falfa is coming up as they will peck the seedlings 

 and destroy every one at a bite. 



Giving the Run of the Field. Poultry having a 

 run to an alfalfa field will need very little additional 

 feed. "Indeed on Woodland Farm it is the custom 

 to grow a hundred, sometimes two or three hundred 

 guineas that simply live half wild in the alfalfa 

 fields. They subsist entirely on alfalfa leaves, in- 

 sects and what they find wild. They nest as they like 

 and of course a great many of the eggs are lost, 

 since they lay sometimes a hundred in the one nest 

 and the mower often smashes many of them. 



Poultry having alfalfa lays exceedingly well. In 

 winter time all fowls love the alfalfa leaves and will 

 even eat the smaller stems. If the alfalfa is cut very 

 fine they will eat nearly all of it. Certainly only 

 the best alfalfa hay should be offered the fowls. In 

 any barn where alfalfa is fed there can be secured 

 bags of alfalfa le-aves and fine stems that the fowls 



(415,) 



