Show agriculture in industry by FLORENCE C WEED alfalfa although alfalfa is a fairly recent arrival in the f fields of the united states and canada it is one of the oldest crops known to man and flourished in asia and europe for centuries for the last 20 years our farmers have given it great preference and the acreage has nearly doubled being especially rich in vitamins it seems to offer good possibilities for industrial uses A pilot plant is soon to be set up to extract pigments from dried alfalfa leaves these will be used in coloring soaps and foods and in preparing medicines some experiments also have been made in extracting alfalfa juice for human consumption so it may sometime appear on our breakfast tables at michigan state college scientists have been working on the problem on making plastics out of alfalfa in the same way that soybeans are utilized at present the chief industrial product is alfalfa meal which is merely hay ground into coarse particles which can be fed to animals without loss and can be shipped more cheaply than baled hay it can be used in mixed feeds for such small animals as rabbits and poultry some of the meal in refined refine d form has been used in breakfast foods for humans and experiments have been made to add carotene extraction to tonics and candy |