MAKING ALFALFA MEAL. 



Within recent years a considerable business has 

 sprung up in the West of making alfalfa meal. 

 Several plans ^are adopted for making this meal. 

 The hay must first be carefully selected. Only well 

 cured bright green 'hay is available. With some pro- 

 cesses this must afterward be kiln-dried before it is 

 put in the mill. It is then ground to a fine powder. 

 Another machine makes meal of the dry hay without 

 kiln drying. This meal is not so fine a powder as 

 the first mentioned. A third type simply cuts the 

 alfalfa exceedingly fine with a modification of an 

 ordinary hay-cutter. This is the most rapid in oper- 

 ation of any machine and the resultant product 

 seems to be as digestible as any. It is not exactly 

 meal, however, and is often sold baled, a lock of 

 alfalfa hay being placed at each end of the bale. 

 This seems the most practicable way of handling it 

 for dairy feed. The fine ground meal, however, may 

 sell more readily in the market, though it is doubt- 

 ful if it is any better as a feed. 



Meal and Bran. Prof. H. M. Cotterell says that 

 in one test where alfalfa, meal was fed in compari- 

 son with wheat bran, giving the same weights, the 

 alfalfa meal made 141 Ibs. of milk, the wheat bran 

 100 Ibs. The Pennsylvania experiment station on 

 the other hand reported that alfalfa meal gave no 

 better results than wheat bran, yet with alfalfa meal 



(417) 



