AS A PASTURE PLANT. 337 
grass pasture will soon be destroyed, without afford- 
ing a great amount of feed, because stock will hardly 
eat any other thing while they can get the alfalfa, 
and it will have no chance to grow at all. It is 
hardly safe for a man to attempt to pasture his 
alfalfa while it is in the experimental stage. He 
should wait until he has established fairly wide 
breadths of it; then he can set aside portions of it 
for that purpose. 
Pasturing and Mowing—A combination of pas- 
turing and mowing off is most economical and 
satisfactory. Divide the area to be pastured into 
three lots. Turn out stock on one, and when they 
have eaten a part of it, turn them to the second en- 
closure and mow off the first, taking away what they 
have left. There are always parts of the pasture 
more palatable than other parts; animals thus graze 
unevenly; the mower evens it up, and what was 
discarded in summer proves to be acceptable in 
winter. After grazing down the second enclosure 
sufficiently, the animals will be turned to the third 
part, while the mower will finish cutting the second 
lot. Then after a time they will come back to the 
first enclosure, which will be all evenly grown up 
and about at the blooming stage. Managed in this 
way, alfalfa will endure grazing for many years 
without injury, while if allowed to be eaten close in 
spots and not eaten at all in other spots, it soon 
becomes weakened and grass invades it and the 
good stand is lost. 
