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Show P E P PA R D E RVICE April 15, 1929. Associated Beehive Seed Growers Of The Uintah Basin Uintah Basin Alfalfa Seed In 1929 summer fallowed his land to kill the weeds. He is not going to plant weeds if he knows it, and he can easily find Out by having the seed tested. Our business as seed growers is to grow him the kind! of seed he wants. Market Prospects: Indications now axe that the supply of alfalfa seed will be pretty thoroughly used up before the 1929 crop is harvested. We have only about half the seed in the Basin that we had two weeks ago and that was the lowest ini years up to that time. The United States Department of Agriculture is advising growers to increase their acreage for alfalfa seed from the acreage grown in 1928. It seems reasonable to expect Soils for alfalfa seed, judging by seven years experience that barring the possibility of an abnormally big crop all over the country this year, there will be a ready market at a fair price for all the good quality seed' we can produce in the Basin this year. GBIMM, HARDIGAN and! COSSACK, are becoming more popular every year, especially State Certified, Tagged and Sealed, seed of the blue tag and red tag grades. Seed has to be very good' and 'very dean to make these grades, bnt the prices received by growers will pay for a lot of extra pains and! still leave a profit. Every certified seed grower should get his application for inspection into the office of Dr. P. E. Stephens, State Capital Bldg-S- alt Lake City, Utah, right away. The application should show old acreage and new planting end should he accompanied by a fee of $3.00. GOOD ALFALFA SEED PBOSPECTS IN THE BASIN THIS TEAR Farmers who have alfalfa land that is adapted to seed production have excellent prospects for good crops this year, up to date. There is pretty plenty of moisture in the soil now and lots of snow in the mountains to furnith! irrigation water this spring and summer. USE GOOD JUDGMENT IN CHOOSING YOUR SEED ACREAGE Certain characteristics of your land and your alfalfa growing ch it indicate whether or not it is adapted to seed production. Farmers in some sections of the Basin found out a long time ago that their land did not produce seed regularly and' profitably. Now they are growing hay and milking cows or raising other crops that are profitable. Their land was not adapted to alfalfa seed growing and they learned by costly experience. On the other hand, many Basin farmers have had paying crops of alfalfa seed every year of the seven just past Host of these very successful seed growers have made a serious study of the business of growing alfalfa seed but most of them too have been fortunate in having land and alfalfa that was adapted for seed production. Seven years experience in the Basin shows that most of the profitable seed crops axe grown on fields that are free from weeds and sweet clover, on soil that is deep and well drained, and on alfalfa plants that have a big healthy root system extending several feet into the ground. 4 Clean, high purity seed is usually in good demand while weedy mixed seed is almost unsalable. The farmers who plant cur alfalfa seed: have weeds enough already without planting more. Very likely the man who is about to plant a bag of your alfalfa has . The alfalfa plant can produce a lot of hay on very little besides water because hay is largely composed of carbon which the plant gets from the air through the leaves. Alfalfa seed is composed largely of mineral matter and nitrogen which the plant has to get from the soil and from the air in the soil through the roots. Therefore the greater root development your alfalfa has, the better cance it as to produce you a real crop of seed every year. You can force your alfalfa, provided your soil is deep, to grow itself a deep root system by keeping it pretty .dry for a year or so. Cultivation trips. If you have not, why doni jou take your shovel and go dig up some of the alfalfa you expect to grow seed on this year. You can easily learn how deep your soil is and what it is composed of and . what kind of root development your alfalfa has. You will aim learn how far down your soil is moist and gain some idea as to when you will need to irrigate. Cultivation now will kill a lot of weeds and grasshopper eggs and mulch your soil so that the winds will not dry it so much. With prospects of a good market for seed and excellent chances for a good crop, this is a fine season for each of us to take stock of our fields, our soil, our alfalfa plants and the moisture now present in the soil and then, if we have the proper conditions or can make them, haul off and grow & whale of a big crop of fine, high purity alfalfa seed to make some money for ourselves and a splendid reputation for our Uintah Basin seed. J. G. Ppppard Seed Compamy Roosevelt Duchesne -- 5 in the Basin, should be at least four feet deep and of a texture that retains moisture hut does not stay wet and sour. A mixture of sand, silt and' clay, with surface oil that is brown, gray or black, seems to be the best for seed production year in and year out Shallower soils sometimes produce good seed crops where water is available to irrigate just when they need it. Clay soils produce more of the alfalfa seed in Hillard county. They are gray when dry and black when damp or wet If your soil is not just the sort described above it may be enough bettor than average in some respects to offset its shortcomings in others and still be good alfalfa seed land. The final test is experience over a period of several years. Alfalfa plants that axe to produce seed must have plenty of roots to gather supplies of plant food and moisture to make shoots, leaves, blossoms and seed. These roots must range widely through the soil because blossoms and seeds must be well nourished if they are to develop and yield well, and the nourishment must come in fairly well concentrated form through the roots of the plant. Vernal |