AS A PASTURE PLANT. 
It may almost be said that alfalfa is unfitted for 
pasturing. Grasses grow by the increase of the 
lower parts of their stems and blades. They there- 
fore do not suffer from being nipped off, as they can 
yet push up from below. Alfalfa, on the other hand, 
grows from terminal and lateral buds. If these are 
bitten off, growth must cease until new buds can 
form and growth starts anew. Again, grasses are 
safe pasturage and alfalfa a risky one, because of 
the danger of animals, in their greed, so gorging 
themselves that they suffer from indigestion and 
consequent bloat. 
Notwithstanding these facts very many farmers 
pasture alfalfa with great profit and almost every 
man growing it will desire to pasture it more or less. 
The brief study of the conditions under which it 
may be most safely pastured will be profitable. 
Care in Pasturing.—For the good of the alfalfa, 
animals must never run on the field when it is 
frozen nor when it is soft and muddy. To tread on 
frozen alfalfa crowns is to destroy them in most 
instances. Therefore, as soon ‘as a hard freeze 
comes all stock should be taken away from the al- 
falfa field, and the gates locked. 
Animals must not be permitted to gnaw it too 
close. A small field of alfalfa thrown into a large 
* (336) 
