SELECTION, CARE AND MANAGEMENT 563 



Kans., has this to say about the use of this great 

 forage plant in connection with horse breeding: 



"My father sowed the first piece of alfalfa in this 

 county in the spring of 1895. We have increased 

 the acreage until now we have about 1,000 acres of 

 it. We have pastured it a little, but find it does 

 not pay to do that, as we get so much more feed 

 from the same acreage by mowing it and feeding 

 as hay. 



"If the alfalfa is cut when about one-tenth in 

 bloom, we experience no bad results from feeding 

 it, either from heaves or in any other way. Our 

 Percherons are allowed to run to the alfalfa stacks 

 or to eat as much as they like in the barns, and I 

 am sure we are able to put on more pounds of flesh 

 and make more growth, both in bone and muscle, 

 than on any other feed with a smaller amount of 

 grain. We prefer to mix with it some kind of coarse, 

 rough feed, such as sugar-cane hay, shock com or 

 straw, as the horses crave these feeds when given 

 alfalfa. 



"Alfalfa has been the salvation of Kansas and the 

 west. ' ' 



The experience of J. A. Gifford, Twin Falls Co., 

 Idaho, in feeding alfalfa seems of particular value. 

 He says: 



"When living in Kansas in 1896 I seeded 50 acres 

 to alfalfa. The stand was good. I cut the weeds 

 with a mowing machine, carrying the cutterbar high 

 enough so as not to injure the alfalfa, and let them 

 lie. The next year I cut the alfalfa and stacked it 

 in the field. When I came to the tops and bottoms 

 of the stacks, that hay was fed on the ground, the 

 horses being allowed to eat as much of it as they 

 would. They began to show signs of heaves. After 



