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Show CACHE ALFALFA CROP DAMAGED BY FROST Cache County agriccultural leaders are planning swift action ac-tion to replace at least half of the county's 1943 alfalfa crop which has been killed by cold weather during the past winter. The county has approximately 35,000 acres of alfalfa, a crop of fundamental importance to the Cache Valley Dairy industry. indus-try. Estimates on the damage irom winter killing were re-leasea re-leasea after a county-wide inspection in-spection trip by County Agent R. L. Wrigley, assistant agent Reuben Hansen, Dr. R. J. Evans, Ev-ans, head of the agronomy department de-partment at USAC, and Alphcn-so Alphcn-so Christensen, chairman of the eerily USDA war board. f-h oh the past winter was i. unusually severe, the farm leaders explained, relatively light snow on the valley lloor did rot protect alfalfa sufficiently suf-ficiently from freezing weather. weath-er. Also, warm weather in early winter did not drive plants into dormancy to survive later cold, resulting in a winter kill which has affected all sections of the county with the most damaging results in recent history. his-tory. Alfalfa suffered winter killing throughout the state, but not as severe as in Cache county. Mr. Wrigley said farm meetings meet-ings will be held immediately to lay plans for substituting-other substituting-other feed crops for alfalfa. A meeting of northern county growei'b was held last night in Lewiston, and the county crops planning committee, headed by Chairmna A. W. Chambers will meet tonight at 8 p.m. at the county court house. County comm)issione,rs and several county farmers have been invited in-vited to attend tonight's meeting. meet-ing. Mr. Wrigley said he has written writ-ten to several seed companies to learn what seed supplies will be available immediately for " substitute crops. ''If much more than half the alfalfa in a field has been killed kill-ed I would advise farmers to plow up the field," Dr. Evans said. "In year-old fields less severely damaged the hay stand may be thickened, by discing or drilling oats or barley into the alfalfa." Dr. Evans said many acres of county land already have been prepared for planting to spring wheat, barley, oats and potatoes. He advised farmers to plant this land immediately to red clover or alfalfa without a nurse crop and plow up spoiled alfalfa land for planting to wheat, barley, oats and potatoes. pota-toes. We must rely heavily on silage corn this year, he added. Farmers will have a little more time for plant in corn and po-! po-! tutors than for rioter, barley oats and peas, tm which they ! muM. ret as jior.ii as they can I to obtain scad. |