FEEDING VALUE OF THE HAY. 361 



periments were made at Creighton University, the leading Cath- 

 olic school in the west. That alfalfa as a food has passed the 

 jofeing stage is shown by the fact that more than a score of 

 students have formed a club to demonstrate its value to the 

 world. More than that, the housewives of Omaha have started 

 to use it in preparing meals. Its enthusiasts ' say alfalfa will 

 revolutionize the food question, and that it will solve the serious 

 problem of supplying the world with flour a few decades hence. 



The alfalfa is carefully selected, and the bright and tender 

 leaves and a small portion of the upper parts of the stalks are 

 ground together. Then they are run through a bolting machine 

 that turns out a meal almost as fine as flour and having a rich 

 brown color. The meal is then bleached. This having been 

 done, it is ready to go to the culinary department of the college 

 club. There it is cooked into a large number of palatable dishes. 



There are alfalfa gems, and they are so tender and rich when 

 properly cooked that they almost melt in the mouth. The most 

 delicate muffins cannot compare with them. They are light, 

 palatable and easily digestible. Experts who have studied their 

 value as food say that a man can make a meal on alfalfa meal 

 muffins and do more work and with less fatigue than he could 

 if he had eaten beefsteak, bread and potatoes. Cakes of all 

 kinds are made of alfalfa flour, the recipes being similar to 

 those employed in the construction of the cakes in which wheat 

 flour plays the leading part. For every day bread alfalfa flour 

 has been tried at the club. It is darker than wheat flour. The 

 taste is most delicious, being a little sweet, and is much more 

 palatable if a little sugar is added to the dough before it goes 

 into the baking pans. In making bread, yeast is used in about 

 the same proportions as in the manufacture of the bread made 

 from wheat flour. 



It may be that the day will come when we will 

 cease eating animals and when that day comes we 

 may possibly take to alfalfa meal; at present it is 

 a matter of some interest to know that alfalfa is 

 actually rich enough to make food for mankind. 

 This ought to give us a clue to several important 

 facts. One is as to its value in nourishing animals, 

 the other that one can feed it in too liberal and 

 wasteful am'ounts. Horses, for instance, can con- 



