The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-02-05

IOI inc pun vi pIouiDitluS SEEDS
men and growers from misrepresent.
ing their seed. Messrs. Patterson.
~Bierwagen, Allen, of the Dakota Farm.
er, and the Better Farming Assn.
see their chance and seemingly organ.
ize to do the very thing the law con.
templated stopping, thereby killing off
the honest grower and seedsmen. They
have fiagrantly violated the law and
misrepresented as follows:
They represent their alfalfa to be
grown on high dry land.
End. They represent it as grown 20
to % years on same field.
3rd. They represent to be handling
same without profit.
4th. They misrepresent the climatic
conditions under which it is grown.
Now firstly. the Dan Bierwagen seed
is grown on low valley land which Is
subject to overflow. In 1913 at Pierre.
before the Better Farming Congress
which met here, Mr.. Bierwagen talked
regarding his double crowned alfalfa.
He was asked how he got mis- double
crowned plant, and explained that
"thn overflow of river deposited a silt
several inches thick in mis- wheat grass
meadow, and hat he then concluded
to ScT it to alfalfa, which he did with.
u eve blowing the ground. The
ground being soft and wet, the wheels
cut down into the soil, and some seed
fell in the bottom of wheel tracks. The
next time the river rose more silt was
deposited, covering the crown and
a new crown formed on the surface"
The above statements were made be-
fore al least 500 people from all Sec
tons of the state.
Secondly, as to age, Patterson has
advertised this ~so-called Russian-Bier-
wagon seed over the state and else
where as being 25 years old. l have
a letter from him dated November
goth, 1913, in which he states over his
signature, Sample No. l (meaning
the Bierwagen seed) was raised on
high, dry, upland. This particular field
has been growing from 20 to rs years
and original seed came from Russia. l
have been over this field a number of
times" This letter was in reply to in
Quiry by lne through G. N. McIlvaine,
of Huron, who sent the advertisement
of this seed to county registers as pro-
vided by our last legislature, but Mr..
Patterson carefully concealed the
growers identity as long as possible.
When names of growers Of Patterson's
seed were exposed by Prof. Hansen,
Mr.. Bierwagen ONE to Patterson's
defense in an article published in the
Aberdeen Daily News on December
Goth, 1913, in which states, I'm 1904
planted my first alfalfa seed from the
Russian empire. That would make
the smaller field nine years old. Con-
the letter says: Three years
ldtCi 4 bOu6hI ItuSoldh oCCo III q sc
quantities" That would make the
larger field six years old. This slight
discrepancy in age between six and
twenty-five years vas n of the rea-
sons Prof. Patterson neglected to give
name of grower when asked for. /
lay stress upon this age misrepresenta-
ton for the reason hat in trying to
sell seed, which was grown by our
and which seed was grown in
locality for IL to Is years, we
turned down on sale because Pat
seed was SO much older.
In the third place. as to their philan-
thropic spirit in handling seed "at
Parties from whom they pur-
seed have signed statements
showing that Patterson paid them 13
cents per pound, and he Is quoting 1t
over the state 1T 20 cents per pound in
100 pound lots, and higher prices for
smalled quantities. Expert handling
evidently comes high. (D
Fourth, as to climate. In Deem
Der LIST issue of Dakota Farmer, front
page, Mr.. Patterson states as follows,
In describing his trip west of the river:
Before l started on this trip / suppos-
ed l would hear complaints and Ia
ments that alfalfa would not live in
that country. l expect this because
knew that the thermometer reaches
116 degrees Fahrenheit In summer and
minus so in winter. I also knew that
mercury freezes at 80 degrees below.
(This was q close guess. as Webster
says that mercury freezes at 40 below
Just think Of 1t. We have warmer and
colder weather right here at home
than does the much talked Of Siberia
the part that raises the alfalfa. Then
too, some of the west river folks
(meaning Bierwagen) imported some
alfalfa seed from Siberia. nifty miles
north of Umsk. more than twenty
years ago." AS per authority above
quoted, Mr.. Bierwagen claims he got
his first seed from Russion empire In
1904. and three years later he bought
Russian seed In large quantities. The
weather bureau at Pierre shows that
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