THE IKKIGATION AGE. 



89 



Next, consider what happens when you cut off that 

 first cutting. It should be taken away as soon as little 

 buds appear on the lower part of the stems, showing 

 that a new growth is ready to start up. At this time the 

 plant will be partly in bloom and the leaves dropping 

 from the larger stems. Then is the time to cut it down 

 and make it into hay. The hay making must proceed 

 rapidly for soon after this first crop is laid low these 

 buds start into action, and in about fifteen minutes after 

 the mower has passed over the field there is a second 

 crop under way. This makes it needful to get the crop 

 off the field promptly and let the next one come on. 

 In thirty days from the time it is cut there stands a 

 second crop ready for the mower. And after that in 



Stacking Alfalfa. 



thirty-five or forty days there is yet a third crop ready. 

 And if it is taken off on time there is the fourth cutting. 

 Much of the yield of these later cuttings depends of 

 course upon the presence of moisture in the soil, but 

 it is sure that the alfalfa will use all of the moisture from 

 rainfall, and if irrigation is possible it will use a very 

 large amount of irrigation water. Thus it uses to the 

 best advantage all of the soil, all of the season from 

 early spring till late fall, and all of the soil moisture. Of 

 no other crop can this be said. 



The best of all is that the forage that the alfalfa 

 plant produces is the richest and most palatable that the 

 farmer can grow. The alfalfa plant, cut at the right 

 time, and rightly cured, is very rich in protein. What 

 is protein? It is what makes the red flesh and red blood 

 of the animal. It is what makes nerve and brain and 

 vital process. Alfalfa is rich in bone. It is the best 

 feed for the baby on the farm, for the baby colt, the baby 

 calf, the baby lamb, pig, and chick. It is good for the 

 baby because the baby must have protein to build his 

 little body. And as it is best for the baby so it is best 

 for the baby's mother. It makes her full of milk and 

 restores her tissues. It builds the unborn young within 

 her, and after its birth it fills her with milk to make the 

 baby grow. 



There is no one thing so good as alfalfa for the 

 working horse. It builds his wasting muscles, it keeps 

 him strong and hearty. He needs much less grain when 

 he can have alfalfa hay. And he is fuller of life and 

 spirit than when fed upon any other day. It is necessary 

 to remember only that this hay should be fairly mature 

 when it is cut, and well cured so that it shall not be 

 mouldy or musty. There ought to be no dust on alfalfa 

 hay. There are no hairs upon alfalfa stems and leaves 

 as there are no clover leaves; therefore alfalfa hay has 

 no tendency to bestow "heaves" upon horses. For old 

 and hard worked horses in thin flesh alfalfa has great 

 restorative powers. For driving horses it should be fed 

 in moderate amounts, else it will make them fat and 

 soft. Even working teams may be fed too large amounts 

 of alfalfa hay. It should be steadily borne in mind that 

 early cut and well cured alfalfa hay is nearly as rich, 

 pound for pound, as wheat bran, so that to feed too 

 great an amount of it is not merely, wasteful, but puts 

 an undue strain upon the excretory organs to eliminate 

 the unnecessary food substances from the tissues. The 

 over feeding of alfalfa hay to horses has in some lo- 



calities caused -the use of it to become unpopular, and 

 to raise an outcry against it. To offset that it may 

 be said that the writer has fed no other hay to his horses, 

 both working teams and driving horses with mares and 

 foals, for many years, and has yet to observe the first 

 instance of evil result, save that the driving horses when 

 not used regularly become .soft and easily sweated. 



There is nothing else so good for the mare, while 

 she is carrying her unborn colt, as to run on an alfalfa 

 pasture, and eat alfalfa hay in winter. Her colt comes 

 strong and well developed, and after it has come she 

 is full of milk for it. Then if she is in the alfalfa meadow 

 the colt early learns to nip the delicious herbage, and 

 thus takes in additional nourishment at the time when 

 he is best able to make use of it. It makes his bones 

 grow and covers them with good, firm muscle, it hastens 

 his development greatly, it adds to his beauty, and spirit, 

 and usefulness. The best thoroughbreds in the United 

 States often come from the alfalfa meadows of Cali- 

 fornia, and the breeders of race horses in Kentucky are 

 beginning to add alfalfa to the bill of fare of their pet- 

 ted darlings. The great Percherons Of France eat alfalfa 

 with- the bloom on it when they are lusty foals in their 

 native land. The horse breeder wherever he is should 

 at all times endeavor to call to his aid this crop that is, 

 par excellence, the one best suited to his use. While 

 there is some danger in grazing alfalfa with sheep or 

 cows, there is none whatever in grazing it with horses, 

 and thus not only, the best but the cheapest possible 

 development may be secured. 



Calves grown on alfalfa develop rapidly and are 

 ready to become mothers earlier than when developed on 

 other foods. Pregnant cows fed alfalfa come in strong 

 and well nourished, with full udders. Milking cows fed 

 alfalfa hay as part of their ration give milk as with no 

 other possible combination. Not to go into figures or 

 tables of percentages, suffice it to say that alfalfa leaves 

 are a little richer in protein than wheat bran, that alfalfa 

 stems, cut early and nicely cured, are nearly as digestible 

 as wheat bran, and nearly as palatable. Thus alfalfa 

 may well take the place of a large part of the grain 

 ration, and may be made to form nearly the whole of 

 the needed protein. Thus not only is the ration very 

 greatly cheapened, but the animals give far greater re- 

 turns than when they do not have alfalfa hay. On most 

 farms in the corn belt there is a decided scarcity of 

 foods rich in protein. Corn itself is deficient, and enough 

 corn can not be fed to cows to make them give their 

 greatest amount of milk; whereas if the attempt is made, 

 disaster results because the excess of fat forming food 

 consumed leads to disorders of digestion or makes the 

 cow herself too fat to be long a profitable dairy animal. 

 Furthermore, the corn fodder and stover, the timothy 

 hay and blue grass, the oat straw, sorghum, silage, nearly 

 the whole list of common farm crops that can be grown 



Alfalfa in the Stack. 



