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Show t THE UINTAH BASIN FARMER PAGE SEVEN Associated Beehive Seed Growers of The Uintah Basin r i i fB. K4 li H t? We have always wanted to establish a seed growers newspaper or magazine for our Associated Bee Hive Seed Growers but the project has always been too big. We have tried to make our circulars serve this purpose but the space is most too limited. Then there is another phase of the matter that comes up quite often in many cf our problems. Our business as seed growers cannot always be conducted entirely on our own farms. What our neighbors do may offset a lot of good work on our own part. We have seen farmers poison and catch grasshoppers for instance until their own fields were free only to have hoppers come from the neighbors fields and ruin the crop in a couple of days. We have seen farms seeded with weeds white top for instance that came in the water from the fellow higher up on the ditch who did not know he had white top. No matter what we do we cannot live and prosper entirely to ourselves and what the fellow across the fence does usually helps us or hurts us right away. It is for such reasons as these that we are arranging with THE UINTAH BASIN PARMER to have a PEPPARD SERVICE ASSOCIATED BEE HIVE SEED GROWERS PAGE for the greatest good of the greatest number and the benefit of the Great Alfalfa Seed Growing Industry of the Uintah Basin. SECOND CUTTING FIRST CUTTING? With the season getting along now, the new seasons problems are rising up and demanding attention. Probably the one of most interest and the one demanding earliest attention is that of First It seems just now that most Cutting or Second Cutting for seed. of the growers at moderate altitudes are in favor of second cutting. Several neighborhoods are circulating petition agreements in order to have all go alike and thereby achieve some control of the Chalcis Fly. Their arguments are as follows: 1. Fields where the seed is grown on the first cutting are becoming infested with weeds which injure the quality of the seed and necessitate heavy shrinkage in cleaning. 2. The first cutting usually starts unevenly in the spring. 3. It is likely to be damaged by frost early in June three years out cf five. 4. It may be damaged or destroyed by weevil. 5. It begins to blossom early in June and most of the blossoms usually strip until July so that we lose a large part of our crop cf blossoms and a month of good growing weather producing a cron of coarse woody straw that is expensive to thresh, and 6. That the few burrs that set on early serve to harbor Chalcis Fly. our most serious pest, until they can emerge about the time the main crop sets on and damage it so that the yield may be greatly reduced. , v WHILE ON THE OTHER HAND 1. Clipping or pasturing off the first crop will enable us to destroy the weeds by cultivation, thus improving the quality of our seed and lessening the shrinkage. 2. The second growth starts after danger of frost is past. 3. It starts after weevil damage is practically over. 4. It can be brought on uniformly. It usually starts to blossom about the middle of July and begins to set on at once; a large percentage of blossoms set seed. 5. The first cutting of hay or the pasturage is additional income from the land, and 6. Removing all first crop growth before the burrs are found should destroy the breeding places of the Chalcis Fly and leave U3 large yields of clean seed. The chief objections are: 1. That we have been able to build up a big industry on the first crop seed, 2. There may be some danger of frost, 3. Chalcis Fly has eaten up a lot of second crop seed in past seasons. 4. Second crop may need water late in the season when our streams are low or dry. There is no question but With regard to these objections: of seed in the short volume enormous an we have built that up is no questio t hand there other On the of four space years. and the average qual are fields either that our becoming weedy to get continue Will account. it on that itv of our seed lower worse will it are that Chances get worse or will it get better? J. G. Peppard Duchesne mmitm May 1st, 1926. because alfalfa seed ripens as late or later than most of the weeds so that the weed seeds get on the ground before harvest. In the spring we cultivate before they start to grow and cover them. A little later we irrigate and give them a good start in life so that they can produce seed and drop it on the ground before w? cut the crop. There is always a possibility of frost, average date probably about the 15th of September with a chance of it coming earlier. The frost date in Millard county is about the same as here and while they always expect to have some frosted seed the percentWe saw second crop in the Basin age is not usually very great. before some of the first crop last season. It seems as if the ripe length of time required for the second crop to mature here increases with the amount of irrigation after taking off the first No doubt it can be shortened by restricting the water. calting. The matter of frost raises another point. According to U. S. Weather , Bureau records a large part of the Basin is subject to frost about June 1st some three years out of five. The nature and extent of the damage from these frosts varies a great deal but the late spring frost may very well be as great a menace as the early fall frost. Chalcis Fly has ruined some beautiful second cr-- p prospects in the Basin but that was mostly before we knew anything about Chalcis Fly. Perhaps the flies come from adjoining fields or ditchbanks and fence rows. Possibly the first crop hay was not cut clean. There have been some extremely high yields of second crop seed too so Chalcis Fly does not get all of it. Last season it seemed that the first crop was damaged about 15 per cent in the burrs that hung on the hay. It is impossible to say how much stripping in the first crop seed was caused by Chalcis Fly but every farmer has opened the early ripe burrs to find thtfm full cf shells or little shriveled black seeds that never did develop. Several farmers last season had in the same field an early crop cf Chalcis Fly, a modest or light crop of seed and a late crop of Chalcis Fly on their first crop. If the fly can be controlled by and and cultivating generally cleaning up we have a far clipping better chance' to keep the second crop free than we have with the first. Yet most farmThe matter of water is indeed a serious one. ers during the dry season of 1924 saw fields of alfalfa, that had been cut because they were burning and there was no water available. send up a nice healthy looking green growth. The second cutting being shorter and the leaves smaller does not require so A great deal of Uintah much water as the first to make a crop. Easin land, if inigated well before clipping and cultivated thoroughly afterward, will hold plenty of moisture to mature a crop The man who has land that will not will have to acof seed. commodate his farming to his land and he may have to stick to At the same time he knows if he has been the first cutting. seed a big rank first growth dries out the soil that raising long fast. quite It is quite obvious that second cutting seed will permit better control of most pests and that the first crop hay will be exWe should have more livestock or a bigger dairy cellent feed. It seems Basin to use up more of our feed crops. the in industry be limited too our with easier will to sunnose that it reasonable of ton tender of acre first of a to livestock per dispose of of acre tons three to weedy hay per dispose cutting hay than as we may do if our fields continue to become more foul. We are not particularly recommending second crop for seed. We believe' that it has a great many points in its favor and we do recommend that you consider these points. Then if you decide to raise second crop seed we do recommend that you try to cut all first crop alfalfa whether in the field, on the ditch banks, in the fence rows, or along the roadAnd ve recommend also that if your field is going to side. need irrigation during the season you apply the water BEFORE CUTTING, cut between the first and tenth of June and try to have the field cultivated thoroughly by June 15th. Then veep the water You will deoff as long as you can without wilting the alfalfa. of seed and a should have a weeds and of a lot crop you stroy season. another for field lot cleaner P. S. We will be glad to answer questions to the best of Call on us. our ability in these columns. Roosevelt two-thir- ds Vernal |