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Show Alfalfa Leaf Meal Supplies Vitamin A In Feed For Chicks Tc make sure cf supplying enough vitamin A for good growth In chicks, poultrym.en should include 5 per cent of alfalfa meal or alf-alia alf-alia leaf meal in .the ration, especially espec-ially if the ration contains no cod-iiver cod-iiver oil, says Professor Byron Ald-:r, Ald-:r, extension poultry specialist at ihe Ui:;h State Agricultural college. One-half per cent of cod-liver oil in ,the ration will provide vitamin A enough for young chicken, and recent research shows that when alfalfa meal is fresh and made from, well-cured hay of good quality, qual-ity, 2 ! er cent C3n be used in the place cf cil, if other provision is made for supplying the vitamin D. Recent tests at the Southwest Poultry Experiment Station at Glcndale, Arizona, showed that r.eal stored in paper-lined bags a package new coming into wider use is partially protected against less cf vitamin A. However, after about seven months of storage even hig1" quality meal loses some of its value as a protective and growth-promoting growth-promoting feed. To be safe then, unless a ir.oultryman knows .the freshness of his meal, he had bet-, ter use a double quantity of 5 per cent. Professor Alder points out that poultry specialists of the U. S. Department De-partment of Agriculture are suggesting sug-gesting that millers mark bags of meal with the date on which the alfalia was cut. This would reassure reas-sure poultrymen if the date showed h3t the product was fresh, and would serve as a warning ,to use more if the date was more than 7 er 8 months old. Meals also vary in quality and vitamin content according ac-cording to how well they are cured and handled after curing. |