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alfalfa is so marked that it is a matter assumed to be a 
fundamental fact of our Colorado farming-. Alfalfa hay 
does not, at present prices, bear transportation, except it can 
be converted into some more markatable form ; and this 
has been the case for years. Until recently the fattenino- 
ot steers was profitable, and, consequently,'a favorite man- 
nei of marketing alfalfa hay. The crop was fed in the field 
the animals pasturing and feeding on the ground upon 
which the crop grew; this was practically equal to returning 
the crop to the soil from which it was taken. Of course 
tie piactice is not without some drawbacks; still the 
crowns were not tramped to death and the voidings of the 
animals were equivalent to manuring the surface soil with 
the ciop grown upon it. There is no question but that this 
1S not an economical way of treating the manure; but, in 
spite of the losses, a large amount of the manurial elements 
of the crop were returned to the soil. This does not hold 
tor sheep feeding, and unless our farmers pay more atten¬ 
tion to the manure of the sheep-fold, some of the benefi¬ 
cent effects of alfalfa growing observed in the past will be 
wanting in the future. The care of this manure is an im- 
portant question to the people of this community. The 
alfalfa is a heavy feeder and lays a tax upon the soil for 
every benefit it bestows. The apparently wasteful meth¬ 
ods of the past have tended to gain all the advantages 
rom growing this plant and to obviate any disadvantages. 
the same good results are to be maintained under a 
changing system of feeding, care must be exercised, and 
the manurial equivalent of the crop must be returned to the 
soil. 
