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Show Decade Will Mark Centennial Of Alfalfa In Utah By John W. Carlson The 1950s mark a century since the introduction of alfalfa into Utah and other western states. Dm ing the past 75 years it has probably prob-ably been the most important for- age crop in the state, having been grown on approximately one-half of the irrigated acreage. To save importing the seed, early settlers attempted to grow it, and were successful beyond expectations. Utah thus became an important source of seed. From 1900 to 1925 Utah produced one-fifth of the world's supply of alfalfa seed and from one-third to one-half of the crop grown in the United States. Origin and Early History So-called "Common Alfalfa" is believed to be native rof southwestern southwest-ern Asia. It was probably planted and cared for by half-civilized men ages be'fore any history was written, writ-ten, but since the beginning of recorded re-corded history it has played an important part in the development of many cultures and civilizations. It was an important forage plant in the ancient kingdoms of the Medes and Persians, and was carried car-ried by them to Greece at the time of their invasion of that country in 490 B. C. The Arabs spoke of alfalfa as a plant that thrives best with its head in the sun and its feet in the water. This was their way of tel- ling of its special adaption to regions re-gions of intense sunlight, and of its ready response to irrigation. It was carried by the Arabs into Spain at the time of their invasion of that country in 711 A.D., and later by the Spaniards into South America and Mexico, where it gain ed prominence as a field crop. During colonial days alfalfa was brought to the Atlantic seaboard from Europe under the name "lu-cern." "lu-cern." But since conditions there were not conducive to its growth, it did not become firmly established. establish-ed. Alfalfa is a dry climate crop. For this reason it thrived well in California and Utah after its introduction in-troduction in 1850. According to Hamilton Gardner in his history of Lehi, alfalfa was first brought to Utah by Isaac Goodwin in 1859. As a member of Captain Samuel Brannan's company com-pany Goodwin had landed in San Francisco in 1846. He later came to Utah bringing with him a little alfalfa seed which he planted in Lehi in 1860. From this seed seven plants were grown and cared for with patience and perseverance.At last he was able to produce su'f-ficient su'f-ficient seed to enable him to sell some of it to his neighbors for one dollar per pound from which plantings were established for the production of hay. Alfalfa may also al-so have4 been brought into Utah prior to this time by immigrants from Europe, since the plant was well known during the early years of its culture in Utah by European Euro-pean name of "lucern." An apt description of what followed fol-lowed the introduction of alfalfa into Utah is given by an early writer in one of the yearbooks of the department of agriculture, as follows: "Where a spring or moun tain stream moistened a bit of the desert the pioneers planted their precious seeds. When the summers dried up the springs, many of the tend crops brought from the old home died, but the alfalfa lived. With the tenacity bred by thousands thous-ands of rainless summers in its native home, its roots followed the retreating moisture into the earth and held on. Alfalfa supplied the feed for the herds when they came home from the summer range, and in turn the herds have sustained the people." Alfalfa Seed In 1909, according to the census, the commercial growing o'f alfalfa seed was restricted chiefly because of unfavorable climatic conditions, to Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, California, Cali-fornia, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma Oklaho-ma Idaho, Montana and Wyoming named in the order of production. A varying seed acreage was reported re-ported elsewhere over the United States, but in the humid regions the plant set a fair quantity of seed only in the occasional years of extreme drought. In Kansas good seed crops were harvested in seasons - marked by the general failure of other crops because of drought. ' In Utah in the early days of seed production crop failures were attributed to hot winds or to periods per-iods of cloudy sultry weather, with little or no wind. However, untimely untime-ly frosts seemed to be the cause of the greatest losses in production produc-tion and was the factor about which early seed growers were most concerned. Seed Yields and Production Trends The high peak in production of alfalfa seed in Utah was attained in 1925 with a total output of more than 23 million pounds and an average acre yield of 320 pounds. It is estimated that approximately ap-proximately 14 million pounds of this crop was grown within a radius ra-dius of about 15 miles of Delta in Millard county, and about 7 million mil-lion pounds within a similar dis-distance dis-distance of Myton in Duchesne county. Production seems therefore to have been restricted at that time to a few areas of the state which for some reason seemed to be best suited to this crop. At this time more than 40 percent of the irrigated acreage in the state was growing alfalfa with 'from 10 to 20 percent of it being devoted to the growing of alfalfa seed. Yields and total production of seed in Utah declined rapidly from 1925 to 1932. Drought and economic eco-nomic distress added to the troubles troub-les of seed growers and many were forced to liquidate their holdings. More than one-third of the alfalfa seed acreage in the state was lost (CONTINUED ON BACK PAGE) |