l6o CLOVERS 



most, some growers advocate cutting the alfalfa and 

 feeding it to swine as soiling. The advisability of 

 handling it thus will be dependent to some extent 

 on the relative price of labor. 



The best results, relatively, from growing alfalfa 

 to provide pasture will be found in the Western val- 

 leys, where alfalfa grows with much vigor, and in 

 certain areas of the South, where it grows freely 

 and can be pastured during much of the year. In 

 areas eminently adapted to the growth of clover, it 

 is not so necessary to grow alfalfa for such a use. 

 In Western areas, where Canada field peas are a suc- 

 cess, and especially where artichokes are not hidden 

 from swine by frost, pork can be grown very 

 cheaply, and without the necessity of harvesting any 

 very large portion of these crops, except through 

 grazing them down by swine. 



Such conditions would be highly favorable to the 

 maintenance of health in the swine, and the quality 

 of the pork made would be of the best. In some in- 

 stances a small stack of Canada field peas is put 

 up in the swine pasture that the swine may help 

 themselves from the same the following year, as in 

 rainless or nearly rainless climates, where such 

 grain will keep long without injury. 



Alfalfa furnishes excellent grazing for horses, 

 more especially when they are not at work. Like 

 other succulent pastures, it tends too much to in- 

 duce laxness in the bowels with horses which 

 graze it, without any dry fodder supplement. 

 But it has high adaptation loi providing pasture 

 for brood mares, colts, and horses that are idle or 



