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Show THE UINTAH BASIN FARMER PAGE EIGHT PEPPARD SERVICE June Associated Beehive Seed Growers of the Uintah Basin. BASIN SEED PROSPECTS Did you ever see the winter hang on so long ? Now it is the first of June and seed growers and farmers must decide pretty how quickly just what they are going to try to accomplish and rethey are going to do it. Only about three months and a half main to grow crops in this season of 1927. The weather has been so cold, so dry, so windy, and so generally unseasonable for the time of year that we have hesitated to write anything much aboht crop problems up to date. Now its time for seed growers to decide a lot of problems definitely for the season so that they tcan act accordingly. CROP CONDITIONS The condition of alfalfa in the Uintah Basin is hard to describe. In some sections it is just starting to grow. In others there is a good 'prospect for 'a fair first cutting of hay. In nearly all fields there is just as wide variation. Spots are almost bare while other spots nearby are covered with alfalfa a foot or foot and a half high and budding out. Fields that have been well At irrigated this spring generally have the most even growth. the same time, some fields that have not yet been irrigated are beginning to show some growth now after standing still for months. It looks as if growth has been retarded in some cases by drouth and in others by the cold and wind. No doubt, the combination of the three is to blame. The benches of medium alti tude such as Bennett and Leeton and parts of Cedarview, hold the best promise of a fair first cutting of hay especially if the soil is inclined to be sandy and reddish and the Valfa is irrigated 'ittle growth as The high benches such as Altonah, show only on within the soils show the The vai greatest deep heavy yet. fields themselves. Then the problem is further complicated by a number of frosts that varied greatly in severity. Every seed grower realizes that frost is likely to hit harder in some spots than in others. Generally the lower places where the cold air cannot flow awav suffer most but the alfalfa in some high bench land fields, in Neola, for instance, was pretty' well lopped over the night of May 29th. i It is impossible to tell yet just how much real damage was done. The stems seem to be straightening up. The important questions (to those who planned to produce, their seed crop on the first cutting) is how much the buds were damaged. That cannot be told very well until the buds come into view. Another possible complication arises from the weevil and other insect pests. We have found quite a few weevil larvae but hardly enough to do much damage as yet. We have also found a lot of stem perforations from which the weevil had evidently hatched and moved out. We have found very few eggs. Have they finished laying and hatched out, or will they lay more eggs whoA it gets warm to hatch out later when they should be gone ? What about the grasshoppers and chalcis fly under such weather conditions ? The slow and uneven growth, the damage from frost, and the possible out of season development of insect pests, can all be blamed on the weather but that does not help us to. raise crops The weather goes its own uncertain and probably unpleasant way 1927 and we cannot change it or even get more than a few days in advance. a trustworthy forecast for THE PROBLEM Our problem as farmers and seed growers is to govern and direct our farming operations so as to take all the advantage we can of these weather and crop conditions and where we cannot take advantage of them, to protect our crops from them just as far as we can. PLENTY OF TIME TO GROW A SEED CROP There is still plenty of time to grow and mature a crop of seed if fall frost holds off until the average date, say September 15. It usually takes from eighty to ninety days after alfalfa is clipped for the crop to be ready for harvest. We can expect from a hundred to a hundred and ten days if the fall frost holds off as long as usual. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO USE THIS TIME? lot of seed growers had good yields of high quality seed last year from second cutting. Some of these men went so far as to say No more first crop alfalfa seed for me. They were seed second was the satisfied that crop and cutting thoroughly felt better to have the first crop 'in the haystack for A their cows. Then, this spring, because they had very little growth of hay to clip, some of these folks expected to fall back on first cutting for seed. Several first crop seed growers had exceptionally big yields last year and became even more strongly convinced that they should stick to first cutting for seed. Now every seed grower has got to study the whole thing over again and see just what his prospects are. Some will clip because they have some nice first crop hay for their cows. They are lucky. Some farmers will probablv have to clip iwhether they have any hay or not because they 'cannot expect to grow seed on the frozen first outting. Others will clip their fields to control weeds or weevil or to even up the field in order to give all the alfalfa an even start so that they can expect it to mature evenly. Owners of fields that have been pastured to the ground that have not started growing have not much to worry about otr on the score of frost. The grower whose crop has been frosted is the fellow who has a decision to make. Perhaps the damage is 'not so great but what he should ride it through. Perhaps there is no question but what he should cut it off and then what ? The man who has to cut will feel easier to know that while most of the second crop fields that yielded well last year were irrigated before cutting, at least one three hundred bag crop was produced on land that was not before cutting but immediately afterward. irrigated Fanners have to accommodate themselves and their farming to the conditions they face. WE WANT YOU to feel free to call on us to help you solve your problems. J. G. Peppard Seed Company Duchesne 1, 1927 Roosevelt Vernal . i: |