“The Kansas station has found it practicable, from results obtained in the past three years, to ensile green alfalfa for dairy cows. This is superior to dry alfalfa, owing to its succulent nature. In the eastern part of the United States ensiling alfalfa has another advantage in that all cuttings can be harvested in perfect condition. As a rule the first cutting throughout this whole territory is liable to be damaged more or less by rains. By putting the green alfalfa into a well constructed silo this loss can be obviated and the full value retained. For example: a man has 40 acres of alfalfa, from which he harvests for the first crop 1¹⁄₂ tons per acre. Estimating the price of good, clean alfalfa hay at $7 a ton, this would be worth $420. Should the hay be damaged by rain its value would be greatly reduced and, as has been the case for many years, such damaged hay could be purchased for $2 or less per ton. Accordingly this damaged hay would be worth $120. The loss caused by rain would therefore be $300. Put into the silo this first cutting would be equal in value to the best bright hay. “The cost of a 100-ton silo is $250, hence the owner could not only save the first cutting, but money besides. Furthermore, it is not infrequently the case that alfalfa of the first cutting is of a stemmy nature, and it has been estimated that fully 28 per cent of such hay is wasted when fed to cows, as they do not eat the coarse stems. This loss can be entirely eliminated by the siloing, for cows will readily eat the stems as silage. “The value of alfalfa silage in influencing the milk flow was indicated when a ration was fed to sixteen cows, in which 12 pounds of alfalfa hay, 20 pounds of corn silage, 5 pounds of bran and 4 pounds of corn meal were used; this ration was afterward changed by substituting alfalfa silage for the corn silage, and at the same time the bran was reduced to 1 pound, and the corn increased 1 pound. By these changes the milk was increased 10 per cent. “With butterfat worth 23 cents a pound the value of a ton of alfalfa silage has been estimated at approximately $8. This silage solves the problem of feeding cows economically in summer, as well as in winter, under a system of intensive farming.” W. J. Fraser, chief in dairy husbandry at the University of Illinois, says: “Corn silage and alfalfa, two of the best feeds for dairy cows, make practically a complete or balanced ration in themselves. Several years’ experience in supplying the university dairy herd with various kinds of soiling crops in midsummer has led to this high recommendation of corn silage and alfalfa.” Alfalfa hay has much the same laxative effect as June pasture. An Elgin, Ill., dairyman, with fifty cows, says: “Every month I feed alfalfa in winter gives me a month in which I have practically pasture conditions. The cows show the pasture-effect in the glossy condition of their hair and in the yield of milk, and have never before looked quite so well.”