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Show Freak Summer Rains Cause Alfalfa Failures is Theory Advanced By Escalante Valley Producer By Chester G- Haskell For the last two years the alfalfa seed crops of Utah have dropped so low that they may be called failures, and the seed men of the whole country, as well as the local agriculturists and seed growers, are wondering what has happened to Utah seed. From the 'proud position of the greatest alfalfa producing state, both total yield and in yield per acre, she has dropped to ninth place. As the demand for Utah seed increased, the acreage increased, until, by 1925, Utah produced 56,500,-000 56,500,-000 pounds, or nearly 42 per cent, of the total alfalfa seed crop of the nation. From this time on there has been a steady increase in acreage devoted to this crop and the yields have been good until the last three years, or, more particularly, the last two years. The Utah yield for 1930 dropped down to less than 3,000,000 pounds, or less than 5 per cent of the total crop. The 1925 alfalfa seed crop brought' the Utah seed growers $4,434,000, while the 1930 alfalfa seed crop brought less than $400,000. In the last five years the mioney brought into the state each year from the sale of alfalfa alfal-fa seed has reduced by more than $4,000,000. This, together with the present unfavorable business conditions, condi-tions, has left the Utah seed' growers in bad shape financially and many of them are wondering if they should not change to other crops. The large 1925 alfalfa seed crop was no doubt the result of extremely favorable conditions, just as the two small crops of 1929 and 1930 are the results of extremely bad conditions. Unless the alfalfa seed acreage greatly great-ly increases, it is not likely that a crop like that of 1925 will be grown for some time. Cause of Loss Many are wondering just what has caused this loss and several opinions have frequently been expressed. Some contend that the lowering of the ground water, due to the drainage system sy-stem in the Delta section, and the pumping of ground water for irrigation irriga-tion as at Milford and other places, has caused this trouble. Others contend con-tend that the drainage of the land at Delta has removed the salts from the soil, which are necessary for seed production. pro-duction. Either of these causes may have done some damage in places, but the loss of yields should not have come so quickly and these conditions do not exist in east Millard ami Iron counties, the Uintah basin and other places where poor yields have also been secured. Soil exhaustion, due to continuous cropping, has been proposed by some as a cause, but the failure is as great ; on three-yenr-old alfalfa as where j seed has been produced for 30 years. I Grasshoppers have caused some in-I in-I jury on small trees near wet ground, j where conditions are favorable to their development, but no general injury in-jury has been done by them. Small Green Bug Blamed Some seed growers, especially near Delta, during 1929, were certain that the trouble was caused by a small green bug called the "aphis." Poison was resorted to with but small results. re-sults. This bug may have caused some injury, but is not the main cause of the trouble, because the alfalfa seed fields at Milford, south of Delta in the same valley, were not infested 1 per cent as much as those at Delta, and yet the Milford seed fields dropped drop-ped to the low level. The Tarnish plant bug is believed by some to be the cause of the injury, but this bug, like the aphis, has not been numerous enough in all places to have caused all the trouble and should be given but a small part of the blame. This injury cannot be attributed to the Chalcis fly, because this insect injures in-jures alfalfa seed after the seed is formed and the present trouble is caused by the bloom falling off before the plants have gone into the bun-. It is not likely that the trouble is caused by any of the diseases of alfalfa, alfal-fa, because no great increase of diseases di-seases has been noticed. If the trouble trou-ble were caused by either insects or disease, the yields would have been less uniform than now over the state. Some places would have been greatly injured, while others would have had but little loss. If insects or disease trouble, it would be well to stop growing grow-ing alfalfa seed in Utah and grow hay instead, until methods of control are developed. Trouble State-Wide The trouble seems to be state-wide, therefore the cause may be due to weather conditions, because these are the only conditions which can change quickly over a large area and bo somewhat uniform. It has been gen erally recognized for a long time that rain during blooming time, especially when followed by hot sushine, will cause stripping of alfalfa bloom. Realizing Real-izing that none of the other mentioned mention-ed causes could be responsible for most of this damage and wanting to know more about the chance of making mak-ing an alfalfa seed crop next year has caused search to be made to find the effect of rainfall during blooming time on the yield of alfalfa seed. J. Cecil Alter, meteorologist in charge of the United State weather bureau office of Salt Lake City, and Frank Andrews, agricultural statistician statisti-cian for the United States department of Agriculture at Salt Lake, have contributed con-tributed data relating to climate and yields and prices of alfalfa seed for the years between 1893 and 1930, inclusive, in-clusive, to be used in this comparison. Rainfall during the blooming period was taken for the first two weeks of July and the first two weeks of Aug-ust Aug-ust for Deseret, Oak City, Fillmore, j Milford, Cedar City, Parowan, Tre-: monton, Tooele, Duchesne, Ft. Du- i chesne, and Myton, all of Utah, and for Blackfoot, Idaho Falls, and Twin Falls, all of Idaho. In comparing the rainfall during the blooming period with yields for the same years from 1924 to 1930, an outstanding feature is the greatly increased in-creased rainfall during blooming time for the last two years, when yields have been low compared with those for the previous five years, whr-n crops were good. The average rainfall rain-fall during the blooming season for' the last two years at all stations i nearly three times that for the good years. Also, the average rainfall for bad years for the blooming season was one-sixth of the total average annual an-nual rainfall for bad years and the same figure for the good years is one-eleventh. one-eleventh. This shows that the bloom- (Continued next week) |