The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-03-05
RETURNED FROM THIRD VISIT
State College Explorer fus ilepaTt-
ment of Agriculture.

| menL Oh iASrlCullufc.
Washington, Feb. 22.-Niels Eb-
bssen Hansen, who is professor of
horticulture at the state college of
agriculture, Bookings, S. D., and
chief plant explorer for the depart
ment of agriculture at Washington,
has just returned from his third
journey into northern Asia, bring
ing back three new varieties of
Arctic alfalfa, a clover that will
grow through ice and grape that
is suitable to the semi-ard regions
of this country. Mr.. Hansen is the
man who brought alfalfa to the set
tiers of the west and made farming
in certain areas of that section pro-
ductive and prosperous.
Professor Hansen was in quest of
new varieties of alfalfa and a clover
and brought back with him more
than 800 varieties which he gather
ed. Two of these he secured in a
section of Siberia, where the mer-
injury freezes and there is no snow,
and with them he will conduct eX-
He has spent several years hunting
through ancient and far-off coun-
tries for useful plants, grains and
fruits that we do not have in this
country, but that are suitable to the
climate of our northern ATTITUDES
and will furnish our farmers with
greater opportunities to diversity
their crops and practice rotation
which will not exhaust the soil.
Professor Hansen has explored
Russia, Siberia, Turkestan, Mon
golia, Manchuria, western China,
Japan, Trans-Caucasia, Persia, Lap
land, Finland and other countries
in search of plant life that will en-
dure the cold climate of our north
ern border and flourish in the dry
air of the semi-arid regions of the
west. and has been remarkably sue
cessful. Discussing need for hardy
grasses in the northwest, he said:
THE history of the continent
shows alternate cycles of wet and
dry weather. Just at present with
farmers owning motor cars and with
everything in first-class, full-dinner-
pail order on farms, climate condi-
lions are splendid, but If history re-
peats itself and the long, dry cycle
rolls around, wheat will suffer for
the years in which the bountiful
rains kept away For that reason
the world has been actually secured
to get clover and alfalfa which will
best grow in attitudes of the north
west and under condition which
may be expected.
Glover and alfalfa are the found
abroad and will become beef and
mutton raisers of the greatest source
of strength when the results of eX-
petitions are thoroughly dissent
mated throughout the cattle states.
Professor Hansen carries a pass
showing all nations that he is an
agriculturist explorer. The back of
the document is stamped and vised
and signed with official seals and
signatures of dozens of countries.
Scarcely half an inch of clear space
remains. Through all of the princi-
pal cities and countries of the
mysterious region in and around the
desert of Cobb, the explorer and his
men travelled, sleeping on the
ground at times. living with Mon
golian peasants, doing farm work
,lr iah
grows farthest north.
In one region where the subsoil
is always frozen and where lakes
and rivers are frozen to the bottom,
the party found some Of the vari-
cites of which seeds have been
brought back. In one of the places
visited it is said that the thermome-
ter registered in winter S3 degrees
below zero.