ALFALFA—ITS GROWTH, DIGESTIBILITY, ETC. 
9 
CHEMICAL SECTION. 
The question of the composition and digestibility of 
alfalfa, the chief forage crop of Colorado, has, from time to 
time, engaged the attention of the agricultural press, and 
the leading farmers of this region ; in addition to this, the 
proper time to cut alfalfa in order to secure the greatest 
amount of nutriment, has never been definitely settled 
where the plant was grown under irrigation ; in order to 
answer these questions satisfactorily, alfalfa was cut at 
four different periods of growth and maturity , viz.: When, 
1. Beginning to bud. 
2. In full bloom. 
3. When bloom was half ripened. 
4. When seed was fully ripe. 
The samples were cut, immediately weighed, and 
dried on canvas in the open air on the barn floor to a 
constant weight. 
The amount of water lost was approximately 50 to 78 
per cent, in the different periods, and the exact quantity 
for each is noted in the column of remarks in the table. 
The water named in the column headed “ water,” in the 
table, is the amount of moisture driven off when the sub¬ 
stance was heated in an air bath to 100° C. The samples 
from the San Luis Station were from the farm of Mr. 
David Best, near Del Norte, Colorado, while those from 
Bent Station were from the farms of several persons near 
Rockv Ford, Colorado. 
The analyses were made in duplicate, arid the method 
pursued was that adopted by the Association of Official 
Agricultural Chemists in convention at Washington, D. C., 
August 9-10, 1888. 
EXPLANATION OF THE ANALYSES OF FEEDING STUFFS. 
Water —The amount of water in forage plants is constant¬ 
ly changing with the temperature and the dryness of the air 
to which it is exposed, and no just comparison of samples 
can be made unless the amount of water be known. The 
water is expelled by heating a weighed quantity in the air 
