Show HANSEN AND ALFALFA how iowa scientist secured drought Resl stent plants to supplement those of northwest it was back in that professor lansen was called upon to go to cussia and asia as the nations first lant explorer it Is told in the re ot reviews that jamea allson he secretary of agriculture at that alme had known professor ivansen it ames and he was instructed by secretary alleon to secure drought resisting and cold resl stent plants ot commercial value to supplement those of the northwest or other parts ot the united stat es having crossed through northern europe and made hia way eastward and then southwestward across rus sla again the professor turned southward through and then sailed over the caspian sea to the realms of the here he came face to face with the problem in the discovery ot a hardy alfalfa it was almost like discovering a new continent here was an alfalfa that nature doubtless through thousands of years bad inured to drought and cold it held hardiness had been worked into it by natures slow processes as the plant had traveled infinite pains from ha southward perhaps in whereas the common alfalfas al falfas of the united states had traveled another wiy these were taken from persia to greece in the fifth century thence they were carried to italy and spain and after that to south america long after which they were brought to the southwestern states they had never had an opportunity to spread northward through long centuries of time becoming hardy by infinitely slow degrees as had those of the part of asia where professor ivansen had just made his discover with the discoverers philosophy ot plant hardiness however the hardiness of these new al falfas could be transferred to other al falfas and a variety both luxuriant and hardy could be invented that Is it this newly discovered alfalfa would not it do as a successful forage in the middle west of the united states but the thing to do was to follow this new plant northward and find out the home ot the handiest hardiest har diest of the hardy with this in mind he set out he followed the trail across deserts among wild and forbidding mountains along routes infested by bandits trac ing it by caravan tor 1300 miles to a latitude about level with st paul 45 degrees north in the very heart of asia along the difficult way be inter viewed natives soldiers and the horses in the markets he and hia company gathered seed by hand out in the steppes then winter overtook him a little to the northwestward of the chinese frontier and risking bla life by exposure he made a mile dash northward to amsk on the railroad whence he started westward with his precious freight of seeds |