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Show 4 THE BASHI FABMEB TTOT-L-H VICE FEPFARD January 15, 1S23. Associated Beehive Seed Growers 0 f Tie Uintah. Basin THE 1927 CROP Just a few more weeks and the ,1927 crop of alfalfa seed will be going into the ground. At least we all hope that it will all go into the ground and clear the way for the crop we hope to produce in 1928. What about this 1927 crop anyway? How does it compare Better or poorer with other crops? Is it bigger or smaller? quality? Is there a fair chance that it will all be sold and plant ed? The 1927 Alfalfa Seed crop for the United States is estimated at 48,000,000 pounds. The 1926 crop was about 56,000,-00- 0 pounds. The 1925 crop was also about 56,000000 pounds. On Cte face of it the 1927 crop is 10,000,000 pounds short. Actually, the two big crops of 1925 and 1926 were not near all planted so that the 1927 crop is oing on the market in competition with a big carryover from the previous years and it is still too early to know whether the .demand will clean up both the 1927 crop and the carryover. Bight here in the Uintah Basin the 1927 crop seems to be a little larger than the crop of 1926. Our 1927 crop on the average has consisted of well ripened seed. Some crops show considerable variation in the size of the berry but there is very little frosted or green seed. Chalcis fly has done very little damage. Several crops were rained on at harvest time so that there has been some stained and sprouted seed to contend with. In general most of the sprouted stuff has screened , I r Weeds have been the big drawback to our 1927 seed crop. Many crops clean to a very fine pnrity on the first run seed bnt When these with a heavy percentage of offal screenings. recleaned seed are recovered been the has screening very low account On of weeds. on the other a hand great many purity crops that contained no weeds have cleaned np so that there was almost no waste at all except the no value chaff, dust, etc. caused the most trouble are The weeds that have Busman Thistle, lambsquarter, Wild or Foxtail Millett, green Sweet Clover and large Dodder. ; Green Foxtail has shown up in many crops that have already been clean Until this season The seed is almost the same size and weight as alfalfa so that it cannot be removed by ordinary cleaning. ISoreover, when the seed is threshed a lot of the Foxtail gets huddled making it still harder to remove it. lussia Thistle screens out fairly well unless the feathery husk of the seed is removed., in threshing. As long as the the screens while alfalfa seed is bulky, it rides over is when but it peeled down it is pretty apt to go goes through seed and come out in the bag. the alfalfa with It right along sterns that manv thistle seeds were smaller than average this to remove than usual. year too, so that they have been harder Lmbsquarters or pig weeds has been for iicre trouble this This seed, year tTiaw in any year we have experienced here. is off in threshing just about especially when the husk is rubbed the thickness and weight of a moderately small alfalfa seed. By rather hard cleaning, it usually comes opt of the first run seed, but a lot of it stays in the second run or recleaned screenings. THE COST OF GBOWIBG WEEDS It is not at all unusual to get 99.50 pure seed and 80.00 pure recleaned screenings cut of a given lot of seed. If this lot yields fifty per cent 99.50 pure worth $14.50 per cwt, ami twenty-fiv- e percent only 90.00 pure and worth $5.00 per cwt.. of the lot as a whole is worth half of $14.50 plus cue-fourwe hand other On if the percent of get $8.50 only. fifty $5.00 number one and twenty-fiv- e percent number two at $13 dollars per cwt, the lot as a whole is worth $10.50 or two dollars per cwt more. As a matter of fact if the crop was free from weeds percent number one and worth it would probably be seventy-fiv- e low whatever grade seed could be re$10.87 per cwt, plus covered from the screenings. In other words the weeds are reducing the value of the crop about $2.50 per cwt, or almost twentv-fiv- p percent If the crop weighed 10.000 pounds, to start with, the weeds are costing its owner $250.00 in cash that he cannot get Expensive arent they? There has not been xtfnch sweet clover in alfalfa this season. This is partly due to a lot of thorough rouging. At the same time the showers and wind in the fall no doubt dropped a lot of sweet clover seed to the ground before the alfalfa seed was th cut LABGE DODDEB and by large dodder we mean any dodder that is too large to screen out of alfalfa seed has shown up in a lot of crons this year . Generally ' there has been only a slight trace. The unpleasant nart of it is that it is coming in crons from a lot of land that has never had any before. ' on the lookout for large dodEvery seed grower shonld der. Some crops were full of it in 1927 and they came from land that produced crops with only a trace last year and the year before. On the whole, the 1927 crop in the Uintah Basin has been a little bigger than in 1926. It seems now that there has been more high quality seed in the Basin than in 1926. Whereas the 1926 low grades were mixed with clover, the 1827 low grades are weedy with Green Foxtail, Lamhsquarters, and Bussia Thistle. It is to be hoped that the 1927 crop will all be sold and planted this spring so that we will have an open field for our . 1928 seed crop. We Offer No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. 11.00 $14.50 No. 4. $13.00 8.50 Extra No. 1, 5 percent over No. 1 Jo Go Dzch&ae Peppara Seed Company Roosevelt Vernal |
