38 ALFALFA 



more palatable thereby also. It is always advisable 

 to have air spaces under the stacks or mows if the 

 floors are tight. This may be accomplished by putting 

 down poles, brush, or the like, on which to start the 

 foundation. Ventilators may be put in the mows, 

 built rack-fashion, two feet square from the floor up. 

 A barrel set, the hay built around it, and the barrel 

 raised from time to time, as the mow fills, forms a very 

 effedlive ventilator. 



While there are many opinions as to what extent 

 hay is damaged by discolorations in the stacks, or 

 whether at all, the strongest demand is always for the 

 brightest colored and most perfedlly cured. It is 

 hardly too broad a statement, however, to say that 

 alfalfa cannot be damaged in the stack to such an 

 extent that cattle will not eat it. 



There is always some difference in the quality of 

 the hay from different cuttings. The first cutting is 

 generally coarser, and is best fed to stock cattle and 

 horses. The second and later cuttings are good for 

 all stock. 



COMPARISON OF YIELDS 



Prof. C. 1,. Ingersoll, of the Nebraska Experiment 

 Station at I^incoln, planted clovers, including alfalfa, 

 and several of the tame grasses. The alfalfa, he says, 

 in spite of a dry spring, grew finely, and in the fall, 

 during the prolonged and dry period, it was the only 

 green plant in the whole list. No fertilizers were used; 

 the ground was simply plowed, harrowed until very 

 smooth, and after sowing was all lightly harrowed and 

 smoothed with a plank drag. During the first season 

 the plats were mowed once, and the weeds and surplus 



