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 from 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 
