PASTURING SHEEP ON ALFALFA. 
17 
had kept them on the farm all the season, I think 130 acres 
would have been sufficient to feed them. 
There have not been very many raising lambs here and 
what has been done has been done for only a couple of 
years. We have run simply old ewes on alfalfa so that the 
test so far as bloat is concerned is hardly a fair one for sheep 
raising in general. I am sure that old ewes do not bloat so 
much as young ones. Most of us have not invested in 
enough for fences to cut our pastures up properly. I think 
that if we had our pastures fenced so that there would be 
no danger from coyotes and would leave the sheep on the 
land all the time, there would be comparatively little danger 
from bloat if the owner would go around through them a 
couple of times a day and make them get up and eat a., 
little. Some lost considerable here this year and have been 
scared out to the range. We have only lost three out of 
1,000. Of this 1,000, not over one-third could be classed as. 
old ewes. I have very little doubt but that there is a differ-- 
ence in size in an alfalfa fed lamb and one raised on the 
range of at least twenty-five pounds. The chances are that, 
we could afford to raise nearer pure bred Shropshire or 
Hampshire Downs on ranches than we could afford to do on 
the range (for it is generally supposed here that none but 
Merinos or Mexican Improved with Merinos will herd on 
the range), and if this is done we can make a difference of 
at least fifty pounds. 
SCOTT BROTHERS, Las Animas. 
In 1898 our sheep are all on the range, the grass is so 
good. 
A good stand of alfalfa will carry ten ewes and their 
lambs per acre the first year; the next year fewer and the 
next year still fewer. 
Pasturing alfalfa by sheep is hard on the stand, as they 
bite out the crowns of the plant. We pastured sheep on 
alfalfa for one whole season and during the fall for three 
years. When pasturing the whole season we lost about five 
per cent, by bloat. We are very careful to leave them on 
the alfalfa all the time after they are once placed there, 
never changing them when the field is irrigated. Grade 
Shropshire lambs to which we had fed corn while on alfalfa 
weighed 75 pounds the first of October. Our grade Mexi- 
can lambs weighed 70 pounds. If we had not fed corn they 
would probably have weighed 5 to 10 pounds less. We fat- 
ten our own lambs. 
