340 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



be driven back to the field. Thus they were on al- 

 falfa all night and most of the day, and often with 

 alfalfa hay in the barn to eat dry while sheltering 

 from the sun. 



Advantages of Grazing Alfalfa. — The advantages 

 of alfalfa grazing for sheep are great. Grazing 

 high they escape all sorts of intestinal para- 

 sites that so afflict sheep in America. The deadly 

 stomach worm, once a scourge on Woodland Farm, 

 has almost completely disappeared since alfalfa pas- 

 ture has become our reliance. These parasites find 

 their way to the ground from the droppings of the 

 ewes; the germs develop there somewhat and per- 

 haps by entwining about the moist grass are again 

 taken into the stomachs of the flock, this time to dis- 

 tress the lambs. Intestinal parasites have very nearly 

 ruined the sheep industry of the east. The old pas- 

 tures become deadly. Alfalfa pasture has certainly 

 been proved to be a remedy. 



In a flock of a hundred ewes with their lambs, it 

 has been usual to lose, presumably froim alfalfa 

 bloat, from one to half a dozen sheep and lambs 

 during the summer. From stomach worms it was 

 once my experience to lose twenty, and half the ■ 

 others to be seriously injured by the presence of the 

 insidious scourge. The nodular disease also seems 

 held in check by alfalfa pasture, and tape worm is 

 unknown in our flock, for no other reason that I can 

 see than that of the grazing of alfalfa. Of course, 

 when grazing alfalfa one should be careful that the 



