The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1909-03-18
PROF. HANsEN's TRIP.

~ hSS, hSAu IA AhtCA Cok4AA6 duul-
ence in the hall of the house Of repres.
entatives as he recited the marvellous
story OF his recent chase through the
far parts Of the world In search of
hardy and drought resisting plants for
the western states of America. He
told how his search extended from the
frozen plains OF northern Siberia to
the heart of the Sahara. How he fac.
ed the pestilence and lodged political
revolutions and savage warfare In Mon.
golia and Persia, hunting the barren
dunes Of the desert of Cobb, studied
botany upon Mars hill in Athens and
nearby found a very valuable species
of alfalfa which he believes will be-
come an important adjunct to Ameri.
can agriculture. Naturally his trip
was filled with great hardships, thrill
ling adventures and successive days
OF intense interest. Primarily his com-
mission was to study the alfalfas of
the world and to gather and bring
home the seed of such as he deemed
adapted to- our purposes and incidental
ly to gather anything else worth pick
ing up.
In the first instance the work has
been suggested and followed up be-
covery that plants canno be success
fully t~ranSplanted at any remote dis
lance from their native iSotherm.
About one hundred miles seems to be
the maximum distance north or south
Of the native iSotherm that a plant
can be successfully and continuously
grown and that the acclimatization in
a wider range in natures work re-
quiring very long periods Of time. A
matter of a thousand years is nothing;
that is, a plant that has for a thou
sand years been cultivated in a cold
climate not natural to it still winter
kills when the native variety Of the
same plant in the colder localities
thrives and withstands the severest
weather.
The common alfalfas grown in
America are from stock native to the
Sahara desert and though it is more
than three hundred years since they
were brought up into Spain and thence
to America, and fifty years since they
have been grown in the northern
states, yet they do not appear to be
any harder now than at the beginning
an | it is no uncommon thing for the
most promising field to winter-kill.
Now Prof. Hansen's mission was TO
secure drought resisting plants adapt
ed to the deserts of Arizona and frost
resisting plants adapted to the coolest
portions of the northern states; hence
the wide range of his travels.
South Dakota is most interested in
the plants secured from the semi-arid
plains of central Siberia. where natur-
al conditions are practically the same
as they are here. There he found the
yellow lowered alfalfa growing wild
in large patches in the prairies, some
times several hundred acres in extent.
He found one patch of about three
hundred acres and hired the people
to keep the stock off of it and let
the seeds mature. When the seed was
ripe the entire population Of the dis
frict t,r,,n1 ont anI cfrinnnd tho caa6
from the plants and so he was able
to secure a large quantity of it. BY
such methods he secured more than
three hundred lots of seeds from diff
ferent localities.
The practical proposition which the
professor brings to the people of South
Dakota is to provide means to get
early results from his discoveries. He
rightly declares that the agricultural
prosperity of a large portion of South
Dakota depends upon the development
OF a hardy drought resisting forage
plant and this he believes he has in
the yellow alfalfa from Siberia. He
brought a small quantity Of this home
from his visit of a few years ago and
the experiments made with it at
Brookings quite justifies his hopes of
it. Now with a much greater quantity
of seed he asks the state to make pro-
visions for testing it upon an extensive
scale, to the end that speedy results
and quick profits upon the investment
may be secured.
He wants the dry farming stations
at Cottonwood, Eureka and in Butte
county to be equipped with sufficient
means to enable them to cultivate at
least one hundred acres of the Siberian
alfalfa each. He would have the soil
prepared this year so that he would
have a good seed bed a year hence
for which he will propagate the plants
at Brookings and have them ready for
transplanting in the spring. He would
$50 rcn1o~t than, IN rnu-c fhof fhoN- may ]