SOLVING THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM
Several mills for the manufacture of alfalfa foods have been and are being established, and it is reasonable to assume that the use of these foods will become quite general in cities and districts remote from the alfalfa regions. Whether or not the actual feeding value is appreciably increased, or the nutritive constituents made more thoroughly available, is as yet not determined by sufficient tests, nor has it been determined by any station test that any factory food preparation is more economical than alfalfa hay, where the hay can be obtained well cured and with a reasonable proportion of its leaves. It is altogether probable, however, that alfalfa meal will be more economical in distant cities than baled hay. If these preparations of alfalfa prove to be satisfactory to consumers in distant markets, it will lead to the multiplication of mills in the alfalfa regions, thereby decreasing the cost of transportation and giving the grower a wider and probably a better market. The use of the meal or the food preparations is likely to prove most especially valuable for dairy cows and poultry.
CHAPTER XIX.
Alfalfa for Town and City
While the preceding chapters have dealt with almost every phase of alfalfa, it is thought well to emphasize the advantages of its more general use in cities and towns. In the minds of many there is an undefined impression that alfalfa is for farm consumption only. Often when first introduced into a community, farmers who raise more than they have stock to consume, complain that it is difficult to sell in small towns.