The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1903-12-23
DEMAND FOR ALFALFA SEED
HIGHER THAN EVER KNOWN
Farmers of Yakima Valley will Com
pete with Utah-Big Yield
Per Acre

for this seed is greater than the supply
and prices are higher than ever before
since the first introduction of the plant,
fifty years ago. Experiments have dem
onstrated that good alfalfa field will
yield an average of ten bushels or more
of marketable seed per acre. At present
prices the value of single acre would
be at least $75 for seed, and the feed
left after threshing.
Alfalfa seed comes chiefly from the
special growers of central and southern
Utah. That state has been recognized
| for years as the best alfalfa seed pro-
ducing section of the west. The farmers
have harvested an average of ten bushels
of seed to the acre. The fields were then
pastured by sheep and the refuse left
after threshing fed in the same manner
as hay. For many years the seed has
been purchased by few commission
merchants at the unif 'rm price of Z
cents pound. As bLshel weighs 60
pounds the income from seed alone has
been $42 an acre.
The great demand for seed for the
eastern and middle states has taken up
all the crop produced in Utah and other
sections. When shortage was an
nounced the Utah farmers combined and
demand 10 cents a pound in the field
at the threshing. The commission men
had to raise prices and the farmers of
Yakima are therefore compelled to pay
from Ia to l6 cents a pound for clean
seed. Because of this and the fact that
good seed can be produced in this valley
several acres will be left to produce seed
next year.
Yakima valley, in Washington, and
the Yellowstone valley, in Montana are
the principal alfalfa seed producing dis
tricts of the irrigated vast. In both
sections the best of seed can be grown
and harvested. Yakima men state that
ten bushels or more can be taken from
an acre. Farmers in the Yellowstone
valley have harvested and sold t fi4aprttffep
for the Year aggregated IS carloads. This
was all grown for export trade. There
were only a few acres in Washington
and Montana devoted to seed growing.
The alfalfa plant is recognized as the
best forage and pasture crop grown
under irrigation. When once firmly es-
tablished in field it remains a perma-
nent and profitable cropper throughout
a generation. It is a deep feeder and
goes down twenty to thirty feet, with
a long tap root for collecting soil mois-
ture and plant food. The man who has
a field of alfalfa in the Yakima valley
owns that which will pension him for
life. The acreage sown to this crop in
creases every year.
Alfalfa plants must stand wide apart
a field to insure profitable yields of
good seed. For this reason the land is
planted differently than when sowing for
hay. An acre requires only eight or ten
pounds of seed, if planted for growing
seed while it may demand twenty five
pounds to give fine stand for hay or
pasture The plants branch out and COW
er much ground when left for seeding
purposes. The first crop is generally the
one giving the best profit in seed. THIS
may be cut with a grain self-binder ami
tied IN bundles the same as wheat OF
oats.
Threshing of alfalfa is performed in
the same manner as for the cereals. The
thresher men charge IS cents per bushel
for threshing and cleaning the seed An
ordinary threshing outfit can thresh from
fifteen to twenty bushels an hour. For
the general market the growers run the
seed through hand tanning mills AMI
take out all the dirt and damaged seci.
1t is necessary in Utah to carefully
screen the seed to remove dodder, bad
plant seed that lives upon the alfalfa.
There is no way of getting it out of a
Held after it once begins to grow ex-
cept by burning over the stubbe
The fields of Yakima are not infested
with dodder and first grade seed may
Re produced. Prospective growers state
that they can contract all the crop be-
fore harvesting at fair prices. Expert
ments will be conducted ON fields that
were sown for hay but have not good
stand of the plants. Some new land will
be sown thinly and seed farms establish
ed for future years. No crop can be ex-