ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 



The place of alfalfa as a horse feed has not yet 

 been settled beyond dispute. Most men who have 

 not used it are opposed to its use and bring forward 

 very good arguments against it. On the other hand 

 in alfalfa-growing countries are found some of the 

 best developed and most healthy and useful horses 

 in the world. I have seen in the alfalfa pastures of 

 California wonderful young horses, weanlings and 

 foals, that never ate any other food than their 

 mother 's milk and alfalfa, with what ' little wild 

 grass might be mixed through the field. These colts 

 running all summer on the alfalfa meadows and be- 

 ing fed alfalfa hay during winter reach a magnificent 

 development and are often as large and well finished 

 at two years as they would be at three in a land 

 where they ate timothy hay instead of alfalfa. 



In France quite a little use of alfalfa is made in 

 the horse breeding districts and has been from time 

 immemorial. In England always, so far as history 

 tells, progressive farmers have groWn alfalfa and 

 fed it green in summer time. 



Personal Experience. — The writer has had experi- 

 ence with seeding alfalfa to horses since 1887. He 

 began it on the Utah ranch and has continued it 

 on Woodland Farm in Ohio since his return. In 

 Utah the horses were most of them; used under the 



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