The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-04-09
HANSEN SPEAKS.
Noted Horticulturist of South Dakot,
Addresses Farmers on Plant He

SoAAC6C, az bTOOKlQRS
VINO three times has visited Siberia
TOUR times Russia, and has once been
around the world seeking cold an6
drought withstanding plant to be
used in dry farming in the north.
west, in speaking before a meeting
OF the Coddington County grange
at Watertown.
Prof. Hansen is probably the
greatest specialist on Alfalfa in the
world today, and 1t was in search of
= nardy variety of this plant that he
mas made his trips abroad. The fed
erai government has paid his expens-
Is on these trips, and has been very
well satisfied with the results. The
last trip was started May 10 last
year.
On he return from the recent trim
Prof. Hansen brought over 800 pack
ages OF seed and plants, and is sat
isfied that he procured a cattle food
plant that will thrive under both ex-
tremes of the north west. climate.
The trouble with the species of
alfalfa now raised here is that when
ever a cold winter comes with little
snow it will winter kill.
Inc plant now grown was brought
from India and Northern Africa
many generations ago. and its Gull
tivation in America has been slow,
and the plant has not yet adapted
Itself to climatic conditions. Mr..
Hansen has found plant that thrive
IN the cold climate of Siberia. On
Ills other trips to foreign countries
he discovered different varieties of
plants, but in the latest one he has
brought back he has a plant which
does well as far north as the arctic
circle where the thermometer often
Tails as low as 80 to 40 degrees be-
low zero.
Speaking of his theory of alfalfa
raising, Mr.. Hansen said:
What we are after is cheaner
beefsteak and mutton. Now alfalfa
TO the live stock is the same as meat
to the human body. 1t gives strong
tissue and large muscle. If the farm
ers Will introduce the plant which l
have brought back they will have a
crop which will serve as most
wholesome food for all animals. 1t
Is hardy and can be depended upon.
1t Is the same as clover, but much
more hardy. In the winter of 1888
SO, when the hard cold snap was
had during the month of January
there was over million dollars
worth of alfalfa plants killed in the
northwest"
Prof. Hansen, just at it's close,
spoke for some time before the leg
islature at Pierre, and in reporting
the talk, Doan Robinson said in part:
In the first instance the work has
been suggested and followed up be-
cause Prof. Hansen's important dis
covery that plants cannot be success
fully transplanted at any remote dis
tance 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 con-
tinuously grown and that the &C
climation in wider range in natures
work requiring very long periods of
time. A matter of thousand years
Is nothing; that is, plant that has
for a thousand years been cultivated
In a cold climate not natural to it
still winter kills when the native va
riety 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 then
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 begin
ming and 1t is no uncommon thing
for the most promising field to win
ter-kill. Now Prof. Hansen's mis-
sion was to secure drought resisting
plants adapted to the deserts of Ar
iona, 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
natural conditions are practically
the same as they are here. There hi
Mound the yellow Powered alfalfa
growing wild in large patches in the
prairies, sometimes several hundred
acres in extent. He found one patch
Of about three hundred acres anc
hired the people to keep the stock
OF of it and let it mature. Wher
the seed was ripe the entire popu
lation of the district turned out ant
stripped the seeds from the plants
so he was able to secure a large
quantity of it. BY such methods hi
secured more than three hundred
lots of seeds from different local.
ties.
Prof. Hansen believes that the 81
berian Alfalfa can be started in oul
wild prairies and that it will spreat
and become valuable forage ant
pasture plant there in the wild stat
as it is in Siberia.
All that the legislature asks is S,
reasonable and practicable that W.
trust the legislature will promptl.
make the provision.-Public Opin
ion.
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