ALFALFA FOR EASTERN FARMERS. 
A. CHOP WELL WOKTH STRIVING FOR. 
How To Work for It. 
Part I. 
FEEDING VALUE.—‘‘Alfalfa yields three times as 
much protein per acre as clover, nine times as much 
protein as Timothy.” “Alfalfa has practically the 
same feeding constituents, pound for pound, as good 
bran, and should be regarded as an equal to bran when 
used as a feed for stock.” These statements made in 
a report of field trials of Alfalfa by the Wisconsin 
Experiment Station show fairly the value of this crop 
for eastern farmers. On any farm in the eastern half 
of the United States that has a field adapted to its 
growth, Alfalfa can be raised, harvested, and put in the 
barn at a cost not to exceed 
$.3 per ton, this to include a 
fair rental for land and ma¬ 
chinery, and on most farms 
the total cost need not ex¬ 
ceed $4 per ton. Land adapt¬ 
ed to Alfalfa will yield an 
average of five tons per acre 
a year in the rain belt. Wi'h 
a yield of five toils per acre 
of feed equal pound for 
pound to good bran, and pro¬ 
duced at a cost not to exceed 
$5 per ton. it is not difficult 
to estimate the value of Al¬ 
falfa to the eastern farmer 
who can raise it. The east¬ 
ern farmer who grows Al¬ 
falfa produces his needed 
supply of protein at about 
one-fourth the cost of buying 
it in mill feeds. The Alfalfa 
supplies what the other home¬ 
grown feeds lack, and com¬ 
bined with them in proper 
proportions will make bal¬ 
anced rations for all kinds of 
farm animals. Alfalfa is a 
good feed for every animal 
on the farm,—the working 
horse, the brood mare, the 
growing colt, the dairy cow, 
the heifer that is to be devel¬ 
oped into a heavy milker, the 
calf, all beef animals, both 
growing and fattening, the 
brood sow, the growing pig, 
the fattening shote, lambs, 
sheep and poultry of all 
kinds. It is a nutritious, 
cheap, healthful, and safe 
feed, and secures good re¬ 
turns from farm animals in labor, growth, beef, milk, 
pork, mutton, wool or eggs. Printed tables give Al¬ 
falfa hay as containing 12 to 14 per cent of protein. 
In the last three years Alfalfa growers have improved 
the quality of Alfalfa hay by earlier cutting and by 
better methods of curing and handling, and choice 
Alfalfa hay now contains 16 to 18 per cent of protein, 
and sometimes even more. The writer handled many 
carloads the past Winter of Alfalfa hay grown in 
western Nebraska that analyzed 16 to 17.5 per cent 
of protein after the losses from baling and shipping. 
In the wet year of 1905 Alfalfa made four cuttings at 
the \\ isconsin Experiment Station, and the hay from 
the poorest cutting contained 15.9 per cent of protein, 
while that from the best cutting contained 21.2 per 
cent. Alfalfa hay contains five times as much mineral 
matter as corn and 2times that of oats. This min¬ 
eral matter is needed to build the frames of all grow¬ 
ing animals, and for making milk, A liberal supply 
is also needed for the digestive juices. A common 
cause for abortion is the lack of mineral matter in the 
feed, and Alfalfa is of special value for pregnant ani¬ 
mals of all kinds in supplying the protein and mineral 
matter needed to secure at birth young with well-de¬ 
veloped frames and bodies and strong vitality. As 
showing the value of mineral matter in Alfalfa the 
thigh bones from pigs fed grain alone at the Nebraska 
Experiment Station broke under a pressure of 325 
pounds, while the thigh bones from pigs fed Alfalfa 
and grain required a pressure of 510 pounds to break 
them. 
AN AID TO ASSIMILATION.—Alfalfa has the 
same laxative effect as June pasture. This keeps the 
animals healthy, their digestive organs vigorous, and 
prevents the feverish condition caused by constipation. 
which so many feeds produce. An Elgin man who has 
been feeding Alfalfa to 50 cows in milk last Winter, 
said to the writer: “Every mouthy [ feed Alfalfa in 
the Winter gives me a month in which I have practi¬ 
cally pasture conditions. My cows show the pasture 
effect of the Alfalfa in the glossy condition of their 
hair and the heavy milk yield. They have never given 
so much milk nor looked so well in the Winter.” Al¬ 
falfa is not only a rich feed itself; it aids in the diges¬ 
tion of other feeds given with it. The writer, while 
at the Kansas Experiment Statiofi, fattened one lot 
of hogs on grain alone and another lot on grain and 
Alfalfa hay. For each 100 pounds gained by the hogs 
fed on grain alone the hogs fed grain and Alfalfa 
gained 172 pounds, and S6S pounds of pork were pro¬ 
duced per ton of Alfalfa hay eaten. This gain could 
not have come from the hay alone. The Alfalfa aided 
the hogs to secure more nourishment from the grain. 
This effect of Alfalfa is particularly noticed when it is 
fed to horses and cattle. One ton of good Alfalfa con¬ 
tains 56 pounds of nitrogen, 10 pounds of phosphoric 
acid and 24 pounds of potash, worth at the price of 
commercial fertilizers $12.46. While Alfalfa furnishes 
such a rich crop it increases the fertility of the surface 
soil in which it grows even to a greater extent than 
clover. The roots go down 12 to 30 feet in the sub¬ 
soil, and bring up phosphoric acid and potash, and take 
nitrogen from the air. One-half of a field that has 
been under cultivation since 1877 was seeded to Al¬ 
falfa in 189S, the other half was kept in farm crops, 
chiefly corn. In 1905 the Alfalfa was broken up and 
the entire field planted to corn. The corn on the 
Alfalfa sod yielded 75 bushels per acre, and the other 
land 40 bushels. 
WORTH TRYING.—The richness of Alfalfa as a 
feed, its value for all kinds, 
ages and conditions of farm 
animals, its benefits in in¬ 
creasing the amount of nour¬ 
ishment secured from other 
feeds given with it and its 
effects in increasing the yield 
of crops that follow it make 
it worth the while of every 
eastern farmer who has con¬ 
ditions favorable to its 
growth to work with it until 
he has learned how to grow 
it on his own farm. The 
eastern farmer needs Alfalfa, 
and he should keep trying on 
a small scale until he does 
succeed with it, no matter 
how discouraging the first 
three or four trials. The 
writer does not know of any 
locality where Alfalfa is now 
being generally grown where 
the earlier trials were not 
failures and the crop con¬ 
demned by the best farmers 
as not being adapted to their 
section. Kansas has now 
over 600,000 acres of Alfalfa, 
yet it took 25 years and thou¬ 
sands of failures to get this 
crop well established in the 
western part of the State, and 
still longer in the eastern 
part. Prof. E. M. Shelton 
was as practical a man as 
ever held a chair of agricul¬ 
ture, and was especially sue 
cessful with grasses and 
clover. His earlier reports 
of tests of Alfalfa at the 
Kansas Agricultural College 
were nearly as discouraging as those recently issued 
from the Maine Experiment Station. It is probable 
that in 10 years Alfalfa will be as much in favor in 
New England as it is now in Kansas. A western Kan¬ 
sas farmer who has become rich from growing and 
feeding Alfalfa, seeded it for six consecutive years, with 
every seeding a failure. He decided that he either had 
to raise Alfalfa or leave the country, and the seventh 
year made a final trial, using all the experience he had 
gained through six years of failure. Me succeeded, and 
now that he understands his farm and the crop, has no 
more difficulty in growing Alfalfa than an Illinois 
farmer has in raising corn. 
KANSAS EXPERIENCES.—As late as 1898 the 
writer gave a talk at a meeting in eastern Kansas urg¬ 
ing every farmer of that section to raise Alfalfa. One 
of the most successful and intelligent farmers in the 
State replied that it had been thoroughly tried for 12 
to 15 years by the best farmers in his county. These 
DOYENNE DU COMICE PEARS. NATURAL SIZE. Fig. 161. See Page 406. 
