Show rains at blooming time one cause of seed failures this article is a syll or an that appeared in tze tae salt lalie lake tribune on oil Al monday labru ary 2 1031 1 entitled decd fall UHS laid to rain review of the weather data indicates Indica tej tion in blooming time c thi the loss eor the list last two years I 1 lie ic ali 1 falta seed craps of 0 utah have d di dipped so low that tewy may be culled colled failures and the aced ninn 0 of rhe he whole as well vell s the local an ani i s cd are xon wondering dering ivi blat il has h s to io ulai ej from the pi plot oud positron posit lon 1011 of tn 0 e alfalfa seed pio duji state rate both in total yield aid in yield per PCT acre utah has slipped down to ninth place in 1925 utah produced nearly 42 per cent of oe alre total Y yield feld of the nation la in 10 10 she produced only about 5 per cent about for the state as a whole in 1930 the 1925 crop brought ill tin utah seed glowers 1 thc jhc 1930 0 crop brought them lesa than OT ar a decline in live five seasons of oe in the annial an tit al to co I 1 irm i rm td d the lare 1925 c cop op was no doubt the result of fa arabic conditions the gaall ji ill crops of recent years are no doubt the of extremely aMable un renditions li 11 millard county some antrio ut etc tile the failure to tie dahi ae but the chop has fa failed ailed also where was no dial diali uge system soil exhaustion froni from continuous cropping has also been suggested inn tit bew ew fields have failed rs as well as oid did ones nave caused injury in places but hey blikre III II I R not been general aphis has come in for a lot ot of blame in the delta section but fields at IN JM ilford DIford were not one pendent pal cent as much as the dui dita D ui fields were yet they falier the same i the tarnish plant bug like the aphis nas not ben been b en generally erous enough to receive all the blame the fly injures the seed after it Is formed most alost of the present trouble was due to the bloom falling failing without setting seed therefore the fly did not cause the failures it is not likely that disease caused the trouble because there has been no great reat increase in disease anotle noticed ed if the trouble were caused by insects or disease the yield would have been less uniform over the state trouble seems to be state wide the trouble is stateN vide idu the thee e fore the cause my be rlue duo to weather veather conditions condition because these fire re the only condit conditi lois is which ai an change quickly ore a mage area and be some hat tre n it has been generally recognized for some time that rain during blooming time especially when followed by hot sunshine will cause stripping of the alfalfa blooms bloom J cecil alter meteorologist meter in charge of the U S weather bureau office in salt lake city and frank andrews agricultural statistician tor for the united department of 0 agre culture at salt la ake jake J e have compiled data relating to in climate and yields and prices of seed lor for the years between 1893 and 1930 conclusive to he be ased in this comparison tal lilt t two weeks of 0 july and ali thi alibi two weeks rr cr august wen t the he as 9 the bloom period to despret Uis DEs cret oak city fill inore d cedar 1 ai ty ty parl pari w wan in on tooele thoele duchesne Duches ng e I 1 DvO itri and alato mat ii all in ril i ra roi IGL blace acol ihrl ici h pall inels 11 i trin falls ell in ad d ho comparison of utah yields for fori the years of 1924 to 1930 inclusive clu sive with the utah rainfall for the blooming period of each of r t me ise years yeara shows a great deal more rainfall during blooming time for the past two 5 years the years of failure or near failure than for the previous five years I 1 when alfalfa seed crops were gool the average rainfall for the blooming season at all utah stations for the past two years was nearly three times as aa much as the average tor for the five good years also the average for tae two bad years during the blooming season was waa almost one sixth of the total average annual rainfall tor for those years the average annual rainfall tor for the bad years was about the same to about one tenth more than it was for the good years in other words rainfall during the blooming season was the main cause of vile loss in the uintah basin they let first cutting and some second cutting go to seed thus spreading reading Bp the blooming period over ever a longer season this accounts tor for the fact that the basin made about 25 per r cent of a crop in these there years yeara while A lillard and beaver counties made about 5 per cent and iron county made about 16 15 per continued on page eight rains at blooming time one Cause of seed failures continued froni from page five fe cent nt OC oe A crop climatic conditions and allow alig alfalfa to bloom over a longer period enables the uintah basin to make more seed on poor years wan west wesl r counties do but it also keeps the basin from making the big average yield se be cured c in the western counties in I 1 aorl years when the Ta rainfall and seed yield comparison of the ikast seven bevon years Is extended to idaho conditions were just opposite idaho had two of the best crops she had evor ever produced in these two seasons reasons juse past the rainfall during the blooming period thre was remarkably kably lower than it was in utah during the same PeTi periods another feature of the rains during the blooming period of the past two years in utah was that very few large rains were recorded and the water till fell as small frequent showers and ad there were many days when the recorders put down only a trace of rain A trace of rain can do much injury it was the frequency of the wetting as well ivell is as the amount of wetness that caused the alfalfa burrs to fall fail to 10 set these comp comparisons arlson show quite conclusively that the greater part ot of the loss of utah alfalfa seed crops was due to rains during blooming time this should relieve us from worry and let us irs ivaline that we have the same old seed gamblers chance of making a crop that we used to have in deciding how much alfalfa tc lcuio for seed we must remember that summer rains may fall during ajl the fact that there has bas been the greatest known drought over most of the east wad and that we have had summer rains in utah during the last two seasons shows that we ahre are in out of the he ordinary times as far as th tha weather goes oes at the sanit time we should also aleo that after the precipitation aia haa been very high or i cry light for several years there is a tendency to return urn to normal if there Is any thing hing in the idea that changes in n climate come in cycles of seven years we should soon move out these present conditions and again make good alfalfa seed crops to aly to get an idea of the frequency with which failures may come due to rains la blooming season data on the me rainfall during ahls period were compiled tor for as far back as aa records have been kept by studying these th r in n the light of past failures I 1 17 7 1 inches of rainfall at this time was taken as dangerous to need production these records were studied for cor Fillmo ic deseret and milford Ml lford upon this basis fillmore can expect eight poor crops in thirty years or an average of one every four and a quarter years milford cart can expect five failures in twenty two years or one every four and four tenths years deseret can expect three poor crops in thirty five years or an average of ono one every eleven and sixty six years these estimates should be taken to indicate probabilities only in this connection it should be noted that do deai eret with the estimated probable number of tail fail urea being only one in almost twelve years has been the greatest alfalfa seed producing area in the united states the yields here have been very large des elet the weather records show to have had the neatest g tea test possibilities to produce bis big seed crops land and lots lota of them has actually grown the seed I 1 in considering the same sam daia tor for milford back to 1909 and for fillmore back to 1893 tue the soup I 1 aig li g ot of unfavorable years was vas stud fed led mildord in twenty two two bad years each close together and each had bad no other biar ar near it when the rainfall during blooming time tim 3 was above normal and possibly dangerous F Fi ilmore had ong one two years and on four years poor pe periods rods ii I 1 ciet had only one poor period which is the last two years mst M st 0 the poor periods save been if ef only two years duration prices are higher in of increased production even in the face of increased production the alfalfa seed market has been a little higher in 1930 than in 1929 mis was largely due to the increased demand expected to come from the lessons taught by the tha great drought of 1930 when the farmers in south dakota to virginia and from now new york to texas could see alfalfa good yields in spite of th tha while many otner orner crops were fail m n es it was the best besl possible kind of 0 advertising for alfalfa and alfalfa seed the effect should be a lir birge e demand for sael for pl ailt ing lubing 1831 1931 when we consider ahat has happened to prices of other farm crops aal d the lar lara chop of alfalfa ctet art biown in ti tao s S in 1930 it is 9 ac irias lo 10 0 o see prices prices of alfalfa seed stay up even later reports of large yields in sections where little or no alfalfa seed is usually grown have not lowered the price greatly we wa should remember that the states east of the rocky mountains are normally too wet to produce seed and that their abera aberago go yields are an far below ours the price price of alfalfa in those states is TO ro much greater than in ouis chat they have bave more iw lo 10 raise raie hay and only go for sf j when co editions ar estie i y tao favorable rahle also we are far markets and must shin shii r haibi pa oda i s in the nic acil v lual le in lorn forn alibi as ireat wj wi buler liui fr I 1 agg gi iino alealia seed it I 1 we remember these things along with the facts that the demand tor for alfalfa seed in 1331 1931 should be good that wet conditions c will surely in due tl time me return to the eastern states and that our recent rainy seas seasons orns duding the blooming period are arc so extremely above the normal that they will seldom come again wr VT will III be encouraged to keep parts of our fields tor for alfalfa seed i d to increase this acreage a as lad find conditions lions coming bace to nOT ri imal |