“Ground alfalfa is not only a good feed itself but when mixed with grain aids in the digestion of the other feeds, enabling the feeder to get more out of his home grown grain. “Experiments have not been made to determine the exact value of this diluting effect of alfalfa meal in increasing the feed value of heavy grains. Tests have shown that corn-and-cob meal has the same feeding value as an equal weight of clear corn meal. Practically worthless ground cobs by their ‘lightening up’ the heavy corn meal add 20 per cent to the feeding value of the meal with which they are mixed. It is reasonable to believe that a rich feed like ground alfalfa has even a greater influence when mixed with corn meal. The more intimate the mixture the greater the benefits from alfalfa, and for this reason ground alfalfa is far superior to the whole hay. “Grinding alfalfa hay reduces the power needed to digest and assimilate it. It takes power for an animal to chew the feed, digest it and bring about the chemical changes that convert it into flesh or milk. All this energy is taken from the actual food material in the alfalfa. Experiments show that a much larger amount of food value is used up in this way with coarse feeds than with concentrated fine feeds. In corn, a concentrated feed easily worked up in the animal’s body, three-fourths of the protein actually in the hay is digested; and in straw, a still coarser feed, only one-tenth. Forty-eight per cent of all the energy in coarse hay is used up in chewing and digesting it, while only twenty per cent of the energy in oats is used in these processes. This shows the value of preparing feed in such a way as to require the least effort on the part of the animal to use it. “In a well constructed mill it requires one horse-power ten hours to grind alfalfa sufficient for a month’s ration for a dairy cow in full milk. This indicates what a saving the grinding of alfalfa makes in its effective use by an animal. “Experiments show that good alfalfa hay and wheat bran have practically the same value in feeding for milk. In a test made of bran and alfalfa meal, two lots of cows were selected that were giving equal weights of milk. One lot was fed bran, the other lot the same weight of alfalfa meal. For each 100 pounds of milk given by the cows fed bran, 141 pounds were yielded by the cows fed alfalfa meal.” As an example, “Alfamo” is the name of one of the numerous new feeds on the market, having alfalfa meal as its principal ingredient. After a year of experimenting with grinding and mixing various feeds it was determined by the manufacturers that a feed made of three parts alfalfa meal and one part beet-sugar molasses would possess a very high value. The ingredients are mixed by a special apparatus and subjected to a process which retains and preserves the high nutriment of the feed. Prof. Samuel Avery of the Nebraska station made an analysis of “Alfamo,” which showed the following composition: