AI,FAI,FA FOR DAIRY COWS 5 1 



graze more than an hour or two per day, and some days 

 would not leave the shade of the trees. We commenced 

 feeding green alfalfa at night, June 21. At that time 

 twenty-one head were yielding 389.8 pounds of milk 

 per day. On July 14, after three weeks of the severest 

 dry weather, the same cows were yielding 390.2 pounds 

 of milk. Cows in the neighborhood without green 

 feed fell in milk yield from fifteen to twenty per cent. 



' ' The dairy farmer who has a good field of alfalfa 

 has something equal if not superior to a Klondike gold 

 mine. ' ' 



In the following rations, which are figured from 

 Wolff's standard, it will be seen how the use of alfalfa 

 for ' ' roughness ' ' lessens the need of expensive con- 

 centrates. In these the portions are given in pounds, 

 and each ration is sufl&cient for a 1,000-pound cow 

 twenty-four hours, to be given in two or three feeds. 

 The rations in which alfalfa is not used suffice for 

 comparison. If the cost is computed from retail prices 

 the comparison is more striking, and the same holds 

 in feeding : 



Alfalfa, 25; corn, 3^^, or Kafir-corn, 4.* 

 Alfalfa, 20; corn, 7, or Kafir-corn, 8. 

 Alfalfa, 20; corn, 6, or Kafir-corn, 7; oats, 2. 

 Alfalfa, 20; corn, 4; Kafir-corn, 4. 

 Alfalfa, 20; fodder corn, 15. 

 Alfalfa, 20; corn fodder, 8; corn, 4. 

 Alfalfa, 20; millet, 5; corn, 4. 

 Alfalfa, 20; sorghum hay, 8; corn, 3. 

 Alfalfa, 20; prairie hay, 5; Kafir-corn, 5. 

 Alfalfa, 20; mangels, 20; com, 5}4. 



* Kafir-corn in these tables means the grain. 



