The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1914-09-18
TURKESTAN ALFALFA
SEED FOUND INFERIOR
The Commercial Variety Both
Higher in Price and Poorer
i'm Quality Than the Home
Grown Product

Washington, D. c.,
A warning to alfalfa growers to
avoid the use of commercial Turkes-
tan seed is contained in Department
Bulletin No. 1873, of the y. S. De-
partment of Agriculture, which is
shortly to be issued under the title
Commercial Turkestan Alfalfa
Seed"
Specialists of the Department
have been investigating the compare
tive merits of different kinds of al
falfa seeds and have reached the
conclusion that there is nothing to
recommend the Turkestan variety
for general use in this country. 1T
is, they say particularly unsulted
to the humid climate of the East
which, as a matter of fact, uses most
of the Turkestan seed imported in
to this country. This seed is also not
sufficiently hardy to warrant It's
general use in the upper Mississippi
Valley, where hardness is an import
ant factor. The Investigators, how
ever, are careful to distinguish be-
tween commercial Turkestan alfal-
ia and special strains OF nardy al
falfas that have been developed from
certain introductions of seed from
Turkestan. Valuable varieties of al
falfas unquestionably exist in cen
trail Asia, but these are at present
only fitted for use in experimental
work in breeding.
At the present time, approx
mately' one-ffth Of the alfalfa seed
used in the United States is import
ed. Of this quantity, practically all
-95 per cent in the last twelve
months-comes from Russian Turk
estan, In the European market, com
mercial Turkestan is the cheapest
seed available; in this country its
wholesale price is less than that OF
domestic seed. In spite of this fact,
however, a mistaken belief in its
superior qualities has resulted IN
raising it's retail price to a point
Frequently above that of domestic
seed. No such preference is shown
in the alfalfa growing regions OF
Eurone. There French seed is com
monty considered the best, with lta-
Ian ranking next, and Turkestan
last Under these circumstances,
very little French and italian seed
fnds it's way to the United States,
the bulk of the importation being,
as ALREADY SCdISu, CllS ~AS"P
cial Turkestan.
Fortunately, growers who wish TO
avoid this variety can readily identi-
fv it by the presence of Russian
knapweed seeds. These seeds have
not been found anywhere except in
commercial Turkestan seed, and here
thew are practically always present.
Russian knapweed is in some ways
similar to quack grass, johnson grass
and Canada thistle, spreading both
bv seeds and underground rootstocks.
The seeds are slightly larger, than
those of alfalfa and cannot all be re.
moved by any practicable method OF
machine cleaning. Their chalky
white color makes them especially
conspicuous, and their symmetrical
form-slightly wedge shaped-dls,,
tinguishes them from the notched
seed of other species often found IN
varieties of alfalfa from other sec
tions. The knapweed seeds, however,
are not usually found in large guam
titles and any lot of alfalfa should,
therefore, be examined in bulk. The
examination of small samples is not
sufficient to show whether the alfal-
ia comes from Turkestan or not