The Charles Mix new era. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1???-1911, 1910-09-16
INTERESTING STORY OF QUEST
OF EMINENT PLANT EXPERT
IN NORTHERN SIBERIA
WANTED HARDY ALFALFA
The Government Had Commissioned
Him to Obtain Seed of Hardy
Varieties For Introduce
ton in the States

NSANAS iSobStS
p. Peary nailed the stars and stripes
to the geographical north pole early
in the spring of 1909, there returned
to the United States from northern
Asia another explorer who had found
a pole, the discovery of which, in all
human probability, means hundreds of
millions of dollars to the people of the
United States" This is the opening
sentence of a story in the Outlook
concerning the great work of a former
Iowa man, Prof. n. E. Hansen of
South Dakota.
This pole" continues w. P. Kirk
wood, was the north pole of alfalfa,
and the splendor of the achievement
of finding it lies in the fact that the
alfalfa seeds brought to America from
it's vicinity mean the extension of the
alfalfa belt on this continent north
ward to the Arctic circle, if men care
to take it SO far; successful alfalfa
culture, that is, for An immense re-
gion from which by extreme cold 1t
has hitherto been barred; an increase
of something like $50 an acre in the
values of northern farm lands; an
added income Of millions upon mil
lions of dollars for American farm
CTS, duU ~ AioJ AoAiAJ
be assumed, greater prosperity Tor all.
1.-The ~discoverer, who came back
unheraldsd and went ungarlanded
when he came, was Niels Ebbesen
Hansen, a hardy bodied and high splr-
tied Dane by birth, an ardent n 10y
al American by adoption, plant e1-
plorer for the United States govern
ment when there is exploring to do In
especially difficult regions, and regu-
larly the head of the horticultural and
forestry department of the South Da-
kota experiment station, which Is
connected with the South Dakota col
lege of agriculture and mechanic arts
at Brookings, S. D.
"But why?' asks some one. There
is abundance of alfalfa in this u
try, enough to supply any quantity OF
seed to the north" Obviously, the
trouble is the seeds are not OF the
right kind. Plants from the seed OF
common alfalfa, such as are under
irrigation in California give nine cut
tings a season, and without irligat on
in Oklahoma give as many, often WIN
ter-kill in the extreme cold OF Mime
sofa and the Dakotas. That Is, the
kind OF alfalfa which thrives In the
southern states will not stand the
severe winters of the north without
a snow blanket, and such a blanket
cannot be had to order from the
weather man. In the winter OF 1889
the farmers of the west lost millions
OF dollars just because OF this fact.
when Mr.. Wilson became secre-
a of agriculture and developed his
great plan to search the world for
nlants adapted to cold and dry cl1m-
ates. he chose Hansen for his explor-
er. Accordingly in 1897 the latter set
out. the agricultural bureaus hrst
plant explorer plenipotentiary.
Pursuing his search Professor
Jansen crossed Russia twice and then
went southwark through Transcau-
casia and across the Caspian sea into
the land of the Turkoman. 1t was
there, thrice n years ago that the
north pole of alfalfa idea laid its
relentless grip upon him.
zone memorable day he came upor
the trail of a hardy alfalfa. The dis
covery set his blood a tingle.
cat once he set his face toward
the alfalfa pole. The compass was
useful only in so far as it indicated
that the trail led northward. Hi
guide was the alfalfa plant itself, ant
a weary though increasingly allur
ing journey it led him.
Thirteen hundred miles northeast
ward along the Tian-Shan mountain!
in the very heart of Asia, in a body
racking and cumbersome covered
blackboard, the tarantass, he followed
the plant, questioning Russian arm.
officers. natives, the very horse
munching their hay in the marke
places and o%ftenest of all the wide
wide plains. Nothing but the hard1es
of this hardy new alfalfa woul'
satisfy.
"Then winter, the traditional enem,
of pole-hunters, boisterously fell upol
him lust as he returned from an ex
cursion to Kuldja, in Northwestern
China, and the quest was up for tina
year, at least.
eft was nine years before the agr1
cultural department could send hir
out again. The Spanish-Amerlcar
the Filipino, and the R~usso-Japanes
wars and the Russian revolution wer
obstacles in the way.
"But in 1906 the way was open, eS
cent for continued bloodshed in Rus
&ia and Hansen went to norther
Europe. Including Lapland and lFn
land, with instructions to go on t
Siberia if, upon investigations, b
thought conditions in Russia woul
permit. Conditions id not look prom
sing but he decided to take the risk
and made straight for western Siberi'
"a second great alfalfa discover
was the early result. This was ths
away up in Siberia there grew vii
a yellow lowered alfalfa, a forage
great feeding value, on which the nj
Deadwood-I In order to minimi1