The Dickinson press., 1910-05-07
alfalfa FOR WESTERN
NORTH DAKOTA

PROSPERITY AND CLOVER. lie one
imagine the agricultural condition of
the eastern states at the present time,
if clover had not entered into their
system of farming. Of course, one
cannot trace out the results that would
have followed, but we may be sure that
the social and economic conditions of
the east at the present time would have
been far different than they are today.
The soil would be less fertile and less
productive, there would be a scrubbier
lot of farm stock. the farm buildings
would be smaller and fewer of them,
the farmers would be poorly informed
upon the topics of the day and the
farmers wives would be less cheerful
and less c%ontented, or il content, con-
tented in ignorance. The cities would
be smaller and less thriving. there
would be less wealth in the land, and
the results might have been SC far
reaching that the intellectual capacities
of the people would have been affected.
The foregoing picture is no idle one
for it is we'll known that the progress
and well-beine of a country depend in
a large measure upon the amount of
wealth produced in that country. It
is true that clover has not been one of
the money crops. but it is true that
the growing of clover has furnished to a
large extent the backbone and sinew
by means of which the money crops
have been produced.
But how is it then in the west, where
clover or alfalfa is moi grown; that we
see such marks of prosperity as we do?
1t is simply because that up to the
present time we have been living off
the natural fat of the land. The
hulnus, that has been in the process of
formation for hundreds of years. has
been given to the new settlers of the
| west as a heritage. But this heritage,
when used to produce continual crops
| of Drain will diminish rapidly, and the
prosperity. that we see on every hand
at the present time. will prove evan
escent. It is a lamentable but a we'll
known fact that in every country that
has devoted itself to continual grain
raising, the time has come. ooner or
later, when the profits from that land
have undergone a gradual decrease un-
til such a time when farming has
ceased to he profitable. That time will
also come in western North Dakota
unless steps are soon taken to introduce
a mixed system of farming.
The writer thoroughly believes that
one of the elements of such a successful
system is the cultivation of a perennial
legume, such as clover or alfalfa. With
our present knowledge, it must be one
of these two.
CLOVER NOT AN ASSURED Sue
CESS.-The outlook for the cultivation
of clover in western North Dakota at the
present time is not encouraging.
ALFALFA OUR HOPE We turn then
to alfalfa as the next best perennial
legume.
There have been sporadic attempts to
grow alfalfa in North Dakota for many
years, but until recently, such attempts
have resulted in failure in nearly all
cases. The reasons assigned for such
failures have been various. but we now
known that the main underlying cause
has been lack of hardness.
SAPPY CONDITION OF PLANTS. 1t is
commonly believed that the dry winters
of North Dakota have contributed
largely to the killing of the alfalfa.
It is stated that had the alfalfa gone
into the winter with the ground in g
moist condition that the killing would
not have occurred. These statements
are not founded on the result of any
experimental work and the results al
the Dickinson experiment station have
shown that it is hardly probable that
they are statements of facts. Previous
to our experiments, it has not been pos
sible to distinguish between the effect
of the cold of the winter and the dry
ness of the winter upon the alfalfa.
The evidence we have secured il
quite conclusive in establishing the fac
that if alfalfa goes into the winter witt
plants in a sappy condition. in othe
words, if the. autumn has been wet,