H 
PASTURING SHEEP ON ALFALFA. 
G. W. MAY, Lamar. 
During 1897 we pastured 1,000 ewes on 80 acres of al¬ 
falfa. This was our first year’s experience and we lost nine per 
cent with bloat. We left the sheep on the land when we ir¬ 
rigated it. We began pasturing in April and by the middle 
of July the 80 acres proved not enough and we got 15 acres 
more. Even the 95 acres did not keep them and about the 
first of August we turned them onto the range. In 1898 we 
started with 160 acres, but by the middle of August the al¬ 
falfa was all gone and we had to turn them onto the range. 
My belief is that not over 100 head of ewes should be 
pastured in one bunch on alfalfa and that at the rate of five 
ewes and their lambs to the acre. For larger bunches, if the 
alfalfa pasture was free of cost, it would be dear to use it on 
account of the great loss by bloat. 
GEO. W. WILSON, Lamar. 
We had several thousand ewes on alfalfa for forty days 
during the spring of 1898. Part of the time we kept them 
on day and night; part of the time they were corralled at 
might and turned out after the dew had dried off in the 
morning. Both plans were failures so far as preventing 
bloat was concerning and after losing about five per cent by 
bloat in the forty days, we gave it up and sent them to the 
range. I have satisfied myself that pasturing on alfalfa in 
the Arkansas valley is not practicable at least with large 
bunches much as I should like to have had it otherwise. At 
the same time I consider it the best district in any country 
for raising and feeding lambs. 
JOHN McNAUGHT, Las Animas. 
Have pastured sheep on alfalfa for six years. Fifty 
acres of good alfalfa will support about 500 ewes and their 
lambs the whole season. In different years we have lost 
from eight to ten per cent by bloat. We do not move the 
sheep off the alfalfa when we irrigate it. We undertake to 
give plenty of pasture at the start and then not move them. 
Our May lambs we expect to weigh about 60 pounds the first 
of October. We fatten our own lambs. 
[Note —1 he present writer visited Mr. McNaught, 
July 14th, 1898 and saw his 500 ewes and their lambs on al¬ 
falfa. These were all old ewes, nearly toothless, which is 
