48 ALFALFA 



quite a fair comparison, for a pound of dry matter fror 

 the corn crop is more digestible and has a higher .feed 

 ing value than an equal amount from the alfalfa.- Thi 

 corn crop contained 3,605 pounds of digestible feeding 

 material, while the crop of alfalfa contained 5,61 

 pounds, or a little more than half as much again. Tb 

 corn crop per acre, in feeding value, was equivalent t( 

 three and one-half tons of alfalfa hay. 



' ' There is no doubt but that it costs much more t( 

 grow and harvest the corn- than the alfalfa. More 

 over, while the corn crop rapidly exhausts the soil 

 the alfalfa sends its roots deep into the soil, and gather; 

 stores of plant-food from the air, so that it seems, foi 

 the present at least, to benefit rather than deplete the 

 land. 



"It is evident that in the irrigated portions oi 

 Colorado alfalfa is more profitable than corn. 



YIELD PER ACRE OF CORN AND ALFALFA. 



Total. Digestible. 



FEEDING VALUES. Corn. Alfalfa. Corn. Alfalfa. 



Dry matter . . . lbs. 5,539 10,304 3,605 5,611 



405 1,602 296 1,198 



3,263 4,782 2,186 3,114 



1,472 2,800 1,060 I,ig8 



84 246 63 loi 



315 829 



Albuminoids . . . 

 Starch, sugar, etc. 



Fiber 



Fat 



Ash 



"The leaves of alfalfa hay fall off very readily 

 from the stems. A little pounding was sufficient to 

 separate a quantity of hay into two equal parts, one of 

 which was mostly leaves with a few short stems, and 



