approximation to it may be reached, especially when the production of
the alfalfa will more than supply the needs in soiling food. The ideal
plan is to commence cutting the alfalfa as soon as a good growth is
made, cutting enough daily or every other day to supply the needs of the
animals. If the growth becomes too much advanced before the field is
gone over thus, the balance should be made into hay, and the cutting
should begin again where it began previously.

There is no question but that considerably more food can be obtained
from a given area when green alfalfa is fed in the soiling form, instead
of being grazed. The difference in such production would not be easy to
determine, but of the fact stated there cannot be any doubt. Ordinarily,
each cutting of green alfalfa for soiling should not produce less than 4
tons; hence, where 8 cuttings can be secured, not fewer than 32 tons of
soiling food could be obtained per season. But whether the increase from
soiling alfalfa, as compared with pasturing the same, would repay the
cost of the extra labor, will depend upon conditions that vary with time
and place. Alfalfa fields thus managed or cut for hay will also produce
for a longer period than when the fields are grazed.

Continuity in the production of soiling food may not be possible some
seasons in the absence of irrigation; hence, under such conditions
provision should always be made for a supply of such other soiling foods
as may be needed, and of a character that will make it practical to turn
them into dry fodder when not wanted as soiling food. But where
irrigating waters are unfailing, it is quite possible to furnish soiling
food from alfalfa soils through practically all the growing season.
Dairymen thus located are in a dairyman's paradise.

Alfalfa, like clover, may be made into silage. In dry climates this
would seem to be unnecessary, but in rainy climates it may be wise in
some instances to make alfalfa ensilage, the better to insure the curing
of the crop. What has been said with reference to clover ensilage will
apply almost equally to alfalfa. (See page 103.) It would be more
desirable, usually, to make the first cutting from alfalfa into ensilage
than later cuttings, because of the showery character of the weather at
that season, but the strong objection stands in the way of doing so,
that no carbonaceous food, as corn, sorghum or soy beans, is ready for
going into the silo then as they are later, wit