Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1914-09-26
TURK ESTAN ALFALFA
SEED FOUND INFERIOR
The Commercial Variety Both Higher
in Price and Poorer in Quality
Than the Home Grown Product.

Washington, ID. CA warning Ia
alfalfa growers to avoid the use of
commercial Turkestan seed is con-
tanned in department bulletin No. 1873,
Of the United States department of
agriculture, which is shortly to bo
issued under the title Commercial
Turkestan Alfalfa Seed"
Specialists of the department have
been investigating the comparative
merits of different kinds of alfalfa
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, par
ticularly unsuited to the humid eli
mate of the east which, as a matter
of fact, uses most of the Turkestan
seed imported into this country. This
seed is also not sufficiently hardy to
warrant its general use in the upper
Mississippi valley, where hardness is
an important factor. The investiga-
tors, however, are careful to distin-
guish between commercial Turkestan
alfalfa and special strains of hardy
alfalfas that have been developed from
certain introductions Of seed from
Turkestan. Valuable varieties of al
falfas unquestionably exist in central
Asia, but these are at present only
fitted for use in experimental work
in breeding.
At the present time, approximately
one-ffth of the alfalfa seed used in
the United States is imported. Of
this quantity, practically all-95 per
cent in the last twelve months-comes
from Russian Turkestan. In the
European market, commercial Turke-
stan is the cheapest seed available; in
this country its wholesale price is
less than thai of domestic seed. In
spite of this fact, however, mistaken
belief in it's superior qualities has
resulted in raising its retail price to
a point frequently above that of do
nestle seed. No such preference is
shown in the alfalfa growing regions
of Europe. There French seed is
commonly considered the best, with
Italian ranking next, and Turkestan
last. Under these circumstances, very
little French and Italian seed finds it's
way to the United States, the bulk Of
the importations being, as already
stated, the cheap commercial Turke-
stan.
Fortunately, growers who wish to
avoid this variety can readily identify
it by the presence of Russian KNAPP
weed seeds. These seeds have not
been found anywhere except in COM
mercial Turkestan seed, and here they
are practically always present. Rus
sian knapweed is in some ways SINH
lar to quack grass, Johnson grass and
Canada thistle, spreading both by
seeds and underground rootstocks
The seeds are slightly larger than
those of alfalfa and cannot all be
removed by any practicable method Of
machine cleaning. Their chalky white
color makes them especially conspic-
uous, and their symmetrical form
slightly wedge shaped-distinguishes
them from the notched seed of other
species often found in varieties of al
falfa from other sections. The KNAPP
weed seeds, however, are not usually
found in large quantities and any lot
of alfalfa should, therefore, be ex-
amined in bulk. The examination of
small samples is not sufficient to show
whether the alfalfa comes from Tur-
keStan or not