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New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 183 
trials in which alfalfa forage has been used. This matter in the 
bulletin is as follows: 
Alfalfa Forage for Milch Cows. 
The importance of feeding leguminous crops has led to many 
inquiries concerning the value of alfalfa as forage for milch cows, 
for the alfalfa is much liked by cattle and other animals and con- 
tains an unusually large proportion of nitrogenous constituents. 
The rapid growth of the plant, which can be cut three times 
during the season, and often four times, makes it especially 
worthy of consideration where soiling methods are practiced. 
A few of our farmers have grown good crops of alfalfa success- 
fully for several years, but it does not seem suited to some sec- 
tions of the State. Alfalfa has grown well on the Station farm, 
although the soil is a rather heavy clay. A field of alfalfa of 2.28 
acres, sown in 1890, yielded this season (1894) for the first two 
cuttings — the first during June and the second about August 
1st — at the rate of 24,500 pounds of green forage per acre. On 
account of very severe drought, the third cutting was very light, 
and only part of the field was cut for the fourth time. Another 
field of alfalfa of 1.3 acres, sown in 1893, yielded at the rate of 
33,800 pounds of green forage per acre, as the total for four cut- 
tings. The last two cuttings were very light on account of severe 
drought. The first two cuttings, from May 11 to 31 and 
from July 9 to 28, yielded at the rate of a little over 12 tons 
of green forage per acre. These fields had been steadily cropped 
and not well manured for some years before sowing to alfalfa 
and were not in condition to produce heavy crops. 
As testimony in regard to the feeding value of alfalfa forage it 
is thought desirable to give the results of some feeding trials 
made during the past few years at this station, in which alfalfa 
forage, oat-and-pea forage and some other foods have been fed. 
The results which are reported in this bulletin were obtained 
from animals in the stage of lactation where a fair flow of milk 
of normal composition would be expected, and any general change 
in the quantity or quality of the product, besides the gradual 
change as the period of lactation advanced, might be reasonably 
attributed to the influence of the different foods. Individual 
records for each cow were kept, separate analyses of the milk 
