Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1909-07-16
RAISING GRASS FOR SEED
Max Hinrichs, the Pioneer in This
Industry, Is Enlarging His
Acreage

Max Hinrichs, the pioneer grass
seed grower of the Palouse country.
was in town Wednesday and called at
the Herald Office to insert an adver-
tisement of horses for sale. Mr..
Hinrichs was tho first man in the Pa
louise country to make business of
raising tame grasses for seed and his
success in this industry has been
phenomenal. He has 240 acres on his
home place, u miles southwest of
town, where he raises grasses, corn.
potatoes, fruit, onions and live stock,
and raises no grain for market at all.
He never SUNNI er fallows his land.
bue raises something on it every year.
He accumulated enough to buy more
land and, desiring to get closer to
town, bought the J. r. Ripley home
stead. four miles southwest of town
last year
Mr.. Hinrichs is putting the entire
Ripley farm into grass. In fact he
has it all sowed to grass this year
and has a fine stand and expects "a
good crop next year. There was Is
acres of alfalfa and timothy when
he bought the farm of 165 acres last
year, and he has planted all of the
remainder in grasses of various kinds.
He has planted 80 acres of Tall Mea-
dow Fescue, or English Blue Grass;
Is acres in Tall Meadow Oats Grass;
10 acres of red clover and SIS acres
of alfalfa. making 100 acres of al
falfa on the farm. This leaves five
acres for barn lot, garden and or
chard
1t is Mr.. Hinrichs intention to
make his home on this farm in the
future, but he will probably not move
in for a year or more. He has one
of the best equipped farms in the
country, with com Portable home
and all of the luXuries which go with
a model modern farm, at his home
place, and he hesitates to move until
he gets the new farm fixed up as
comfortably as the old one.
The Tall Meadow Fesuce, mention
ed above, is a new grass, which Mr.
Iinrichs imported from England last
year. 1t is sometimes known as En-
glish Blue Grass, and is said to be a
valuable grass and Mr.. Hinrichs
thinks it is well adapted to this coun-
try Last year he had seed enough
to plant third of an acre. From
that he raised enough seed to plant
81 acres and he planted a small patch
on his home place and planted 80
acres on the Ripley place.
MIR. Hinrichs is now harvesting his
Tall Meadow Oats grass, which is
one of the most valuable crops he
raises, taking it one year with an
other He says that he believes that
if all the seed could be saved it would
yield from 100 to 500 pounds per
acre, and as it sells for 10 cents per
pound, the profits can easily be mag
ined. But the seed skaters so cas-
lily that it only averages about 200
pounds of seed saved from each acre,
and that yields an income of $40.
The cost of harvesting it is light.
Mr.. Hinrichs uses a binder and cuts
and binds the hay, which is hauled
to the barn yard and threshed by
hand. To do this the sheaf is held
over a canyes and the heads struck
with club several times, and the
seed is shattered out. One firm takes
all of the seed that Mr.. Hinrichs
raises every year and would take
much more if it could be had. After
the seed is threshed the straw makes
excellent COW feed, being fine hay,
and there is always plenty of pasture
after the crop is cut.
Mr.. Hinrichs furnishes the depart
ment of agriculture at Washington,
ID. c., with timothy, bronze grass and
alfalfa seed, and gets top prices for
his product. He finds that raising
these grasses, potatoes, corn and live
stock pays better than raising grain
and has not an acre of grain on his
405 acres of land this year. But he
never comes to town without bring
ing something to sell. He raises
horses, cattle and hogs and always
keeps the very best breeds to be had.
One year Mr.. Hinrichs sold from $40
acres, $500 worth of products, in
GLIDING live stock
This has been an idal season for
new grass crops, and Mr.. Hinrichs
secured a fine stand of all kinds of
grass sown this year. The Ripley
farm was quite foul having been in
grain last year, but he had the land
plowed deep and well cultivated and
sowed the seed. Rain fell i'm mediate
ly after he had sowed 80 acres of
Z al ,1F L 4