PRODUCES RAPID GROWTH
One of the foremost horse breeders in America, who constantly maintains upwards of one hundred head of various ages, writes the author this:
“In my experience of twenty-five years in pasturing horses on alfalfa, results have convinced me that it produces more bone, muscle and blood in horses in less time than any other pasturage with which I am acquainted. But I believe it profitable in raising the best horses to also use a moderate grain ration, to stimulate rapid growth and early development; my horses, however, have shown no ill effects from pasturing on alfalfa without grain, or other feed, and I have found such pasturing conducive to health and prolificacy, maturing animals equal for service to any reared otherwise. I have raised three-year-olds grown on alfalfa and a light grain ration to exceed a ton in weight, carrying all the good qualities of the breed to which they belonged. Further, I find using alfalfa as a horse pasture a much more economical method of raising horses than any other.”
Alfalfa One Year Old Showing Effects of Inoculation
Plants on the left inoculated with “nitro-culture,” those on the right not inoculated
A Good Type of a Four-year-old Alfalfa Plant
grown on Kansas upland. Height, May 28, 36 inches. The crown shows the effect of splitting with a disk harrow
CHAPTER XV.
Alfalfa and Sheep-Raising
The day is not far distant when the free “range” will be practically eliminated from the stockman’s assets. His stock must be reared on cultivated crops instead of by grazing on grasses that cost nothing. Pound for pound alfalfa is more fattening for young lambs or old sheep than clover. Lambs soiled on alfalfa cut daily make a phenomenal growth and are as a rule free from disease. They may be carried through the summer on a light feeding of green alfalfa and general pasture or farm grazing, and fattened in the fall on alfalfa hay and cowpeas or a little grain, at a generous profit.
Thousands of sheep and lambs are every year brought from Colorado and Montana to western Kansas and Nebraska and fattened for market on alfalfa hay and grain, making for these commodities a convenient market at good prices.