Show I ALFALFA AND ALFALFA SEE The farmers in Malad and Bear river valleys are meeting with much success In dry farming alfalfa M 0 Johnson who has a ranch near Plymouth In Box fader county has 150 acres in alfalfa and Is I extending his acreage lie prefers pre-fers land not irrigated because he llnds It more profitable to raise seed than coarse hay He has had land produce as high as 540 per acre In Heed besides getting most excellent feed In the chaff but his average per acre has been about b 11 1 for the seed He says for nonirrigated ground alfalfa docs not do well on sod land but should not be sown until after the laud has been well cultivated and the sod used up There is much dry hay lands In that locality and last winter he fed 700 tons of hay raised without Irrigation to his sheep and found it the best of hay V ALFALFA SEED I r Few people especially In the cities of Salt Lake and Ogden realize how profitable pro-fitable and important a branch of Utah agriculture lucern or alfalfa seed Is It may also bo safely said that even few realize the stupendous yet more obvious relative Importance to the financial welfare and prosperity of the State of the alfalfa plant Itself If It were not for alfalfa Utah agriculture would be at si low ebb so low that It is safe to say that we would not be known at all as an agricultural community com-munity and would be reduced to the status of H mining Stat pure and simple sim-ple Alfalfa may bo described as tho Kavlor of the people of Utah In a temporal tem-poral sense more than any other one article that Is produced Without It our people would llnd It virtually Impossible Im-possible to pioneer the waste places our pastoral life would not exist There would be no economical feed for our horfecs our sheep our cattle and our pigs The waste places instead of blossoming as tho rose and containing a happy and contented mid ever Increasingly In-creasingly prosperous people would be barren unfruitful forbidding we would have no rich cattle kings no welltodo sheepmen few Independent farmers and cattle cars would he unknown un-known Our HveKtoclc dealers almost ubiquitous livestock railroad agents living around hero and there for business busi-ness would have no calling and sheep owners If a few there might be would not be pestered almost to death with the persistent woolbuyer asking for his next years clip at 0 cents per pound Nor would the landscape be dolled with green Holds comfortable dwellings wellclad children attending the substantial choolhouses nor would the big cities of Salt Lake and Ogden have so many and HO fine buildings build-ings as now exist and which would do credit to much larger and older communities com-munities This article however should relate I more particularly to alfalfa seed than j i to the forage crop Itself Lucern Is grown and seed produced for commercial purposes In Germany France Italy Switzerland Austria Hungary Africa Australia Now Zealand Zea-land and on the deserts of Turkestan besides In our own country In all this vast and wide extant Utah ranks Unit as the seedproducing State of the world In quantity raised but not quality quali-ty Colorado takes second rank In amount produced but we are sorry to say Hrst In point of quality Next comes France then Italy The French 1 crop this year is of excellent quality and of good yield while the yield of Italy Is three times that of 1SOS but poorer in quality When wo say that Utah takes second rank in the matter of quality It Is necessary to explain that our seed is fully as large and of equal color to that of Colorado but for I orne reason which we will only endeavor en-deavor to explain In part our seed Is I not so pure and contains a much greater variety of weed seeds than the fanners themselves have any idea of This has been Increasing with the years and has become so pronounced that the officials of the Agricultural department at Washington are now conducting a series of experiments the object of which Is to find some means of ridding the country of these noxious weeds Seed dealers too have been compelled to steadily Increase their efforts ef-forts to rid the alfalfa otlta weed seeds after it reaches their hands until un-til there Is quite an Imporant Investment Invest-ment In machinery for this purpose The presence of these noxious weeds especially those known tits dodder and sweet clover has doubtless cost the farmers of Utah hundreds of thou nandij of dollars by reason of the re duced prices dealers are compelled to accept The department of pure need Investigation at Washington hap been supplied with upward of a score OL samples nf alfalfa Heed from all parts of the State which will be subjected to the most rigid examination to find out the best way to eradicate these weeds from our fields It rests with the farmers themselves however to rid their fields of these pests We fear the great trouble lies In tin well established estab-lished fact that farmers will persist In planting for the renovation of their own fields and In putting In new ground to alfalfa the very worst and poorest seed Instead of the best that they can obtain < Instead of burning the refuse taken out of their seed by the dealer nine farmers In every ten demands the return of his screenings so he can plant them on his own ground The experiment stations of the Slate should not fall to Impress on the young farmers attending their schools tho Importance of planting nothing but strictly pure well grown mature seeds If this Is done the stigma of weed seeds In our alfalfa will bo taken away and Utah will be world renowned for purity of seed Instead of having the opposite reputation The value of the ked will bo substantially enhanced by Its increased demand Every letter received re-ceived from European dealers lays particular par-ticular stress on the fact that American Ameri-can seed must be sold for less money than the European article because of tho presence of these weeds The American dealer Is prevented from warrantlig his seed pure because in spite of the greatest and most careful precautions In selecting and cleaning I If one need of cuscula dodder or one seed of melllotus alba sweet clover should got Into a sack of alfalfa seed that sack would he condemned and tho warranty bring trouble and logs to the dealer Knowing these weeds are In the seed and the utter Impossibility by any process of literally taking out every weed the deader compelled to sell his alfalfa without a warranty of purity which therefore necessarily Implies Im-plies the presence of these weeds in his I seed and hence a lower ti rlce must bo accepted While the farmers do not realize all this It nevertheless re bounds upon them and while the djfil cultles of trading are borne by tho dealer and the farmer knows nothing of them It Is the larmer who ultimate ly pays the piper The moral Is that the farmer should try to kill off these weeds while growing In the fields and to reduce their production to a minimum mini-mum by burning up his refuse or screenings and planting himself nothing but choice pure plump seed Wo have devoted thin space to this phase of the subject In the hope that It will load our seed farmers to put on their thinking caps and because the departmont of pure wed Investigation at Washington requested UH to do all In our power to bring the subject to the attention of Un farmcrri l I Lt J The relative value of the alfalfa seed crop of Utah may be appreciated the more keenly by a glance at the plc tures accompanying Tho trade In alfalfa seed Is so well established and stable In Its character that the crop demands cash as freely and as peremptorilyas wheat and the producer Is much more Independent in the aching of hit crop The reason of this Is I that the values from year to year are largely I determined not by the views of the outsiders exactly al 1 though naturally they have some bear InK but to the competition of the numerous nu-merous dealers whq arc anxious to do business In an article which generally affords a fair margfn pjompt sale and I ready cash But a small percentage of this crop is used uthome so that probably prob-ably nlnetcnthf Ill the entire produc Ion represents money actually brought Into the State front foreign countries and from other Stales of the Union It Is estimated that about onetenth of Ithe crop Isused at home in replanting I and Helling to neighbors onethird In sold and shipped to the surrounding l States and Territories and the re mainder finds an outlet to Europe Our neighboring States however are gradually I grad-ually encroaching upon our hitherto undisputed held Alfalfa seed Is now being produced In Now Mexico Ari zona California Nevada Montana and Idaho without mentioning the largo I I quantity produced annually by Colo rado and Kansas and the Increasing production hi Nebraska We are hav ing cnllfc for cleaning machinery for alfalfa seed In all these Slates In Colorado an organization of fanners Is being formed nov whose object It ItIlo take steps to encourage the production of alfalfa seed and to enlarge the urea devoted to hits crop As they do not appear to be troubled with the noxious weeds of dodder and HMHH clover In Colorado If our fannvrH fall to awake Ito I-to the Importance of ridding themselves of these weeds they will Home line day awake to the fact that their markets for alfalfa seed have been usurped by their more Intelligent and wile awnkc neighbors in Colorado It can be conservatively estimated that the total amount ol seed shipped out of tho State is LGOOOOO pounds for which the farmers have been 1 paid an average of 7 celt PIII pound a valua tion In money of 175000 representing Just that much money brought Into tho Slate slne October Isl without adding about JG000 jccolvcd by dealorH In handling and dlwrlbullng How many farmers children are belter clitd hov manly homes iwarmer how many daughters playing the piano and other I wise receiving yiocosiwry and refined and ennobling education how many sons trained hi mint agricultural col leges by reason of this prosperous In dustry we leave It to our readers to calculate C A SMURTIFWAITE Ogden Utah Dec 1C 1S9D Since writing the above we have received re-ceived a letter from the division of botany Boelion of seed and plant intro duction United States Department of Agriculture Washington D C from which we make the following excerpts Utah produces fully twothirds of the total amount of alfalfa seed grown In the United States A small quantity comes from northeastern Wyoming the Salt river valley of Arizona the North Platte and Nlo brura valleys In Nebraska the White river valley In South Dakota and the South Platte valley In Colorado The section tjf the United States which ranks second to Utah Is the Arkansas valley of Colorado and Kansas The alfalfa seed industry reaches Its fullest development In arid regions where there Is insufficient water for Irrigation for the production of cereals or other farm crops and any new dim trlct which him JUst been opened Avlll produce seed for a few years very sue ccssfully but as soon as the ground or the subsoil becomes filled with seep ago water from the ditches the natu ral production of seed decreases lo such a point as to be unprofitable Alfalfa seed production is an Industry separate from the production of alfalfa hay and regions which produce maonlficent hay crops cannot be depended upon to sup ply seed T would like you to make a point In your article of the alarming extent to which the seed growing fields are Infected with dodder The United StatCB Ig developing a considerable ex port trade In alfalfa seed and It Is essential that we send out seeds which arc not thus contaminated with this I weed Otherwise It will bo Impossible I Americans to realize the full prices I whloli the exceptional quality of the I alfalfa seed Itself would demand I C A S I |