Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1915-09-10
CHARLES Y. Piper
HIGHLY PRAISED
washington Cd. CO. Paper Gives
Him Credit for the Introduction
of Sudan Grass in This
Country

agIOStOlOSl5I IA 49,.
erop Investigations for the ohi'eo
states department of agriculture.
Trom 1892 to 1903 Mr.. Piper held
The position of professor OF botany
ard zoology at tho State College OF
washington and therefore he has
many friends and acquaintance In
pullman. who have followed his sue
oossful career with interest. His
.,,fa is a Pullman girl, the eldest
aouobter of Mr.. and Mrs. J. A. Hun
gate.
The Star says:
Grass. if you will take the word
If Professor G. V. Piper for it, is
,ho great economic necessity of the
world. All flesh is grass, as GER
.oin disillusioned person once re-
marked: or it may not be, just as
vou may choose to look at it; but
oortainly all flesh needs grass, and
.ho business of Professor Piper, who
/. the grass man" of the depart
,mant of agriculture, is to find the
kinds that are most adaptable to
bumanity's needs.
Potanists have described some
1000 species of grass. 1t is one OF
Professor Piper's ambitions to try
mt every blessed one of them to as
certain what they possess of eco
mimic value to any part OF the
United States. 1t is huge task,
bat in laboring to the desired end
Professor Piper has already made
some astonishing discoveries, and
the greatest of these is Sudan grass.
1t is difficult to imagine many
people getting excited over a new
grass; not at all difficult to imagine
them getting excited over the strik-
ing of oil. Yet new grass, such as
Sudan grass, may possess just as
great potential wealth as unearthed
oil seepages in ones south pasture.
Farmers in Texas and other west
ern states in regions denominated as
semi-arid realize this, even If the
general public does not. That is
why Sudan grass has created such a
wave of excitement through all that
semi-arid country. Literally. there
has haan millionc in il
Only three years ago, as a result
Of Professor Piper's experiments,
Sudan grass was introduced by the
department Of agriculture. Already
1t has cerated remarkable revision
Of land values in some parts of
Texas When farmer sees his acre
age values mounting upward he has
reason to get excited.
Sudan grass has In mum erous in
stances given yields Of six tons of
hay per acre on dry lands, and under
irrigation in the west it is the only
grass known that will yield an equal
or greater tonnage than alfalfa. For
the irrigation farmer Sudan grass il
however, merely another crop, while
Tor the dry land farmer of Texas
1t is the greatest boon that has ever
happened.
SO tremendous a demand for seed
oi sudan grass has arisen that in
1913 it sold as high as $2.25 a
pound and at present 81 a pound
10 oelng asked. This is in the face
Vi the fact that no other hay grass
gives such tremendous yields of seed
AS much as $500 pounds of seed
nave been harvested from one acre
III a single cutting. The price, there
lore, is due to the great demand anG
NOT to the cost of production. Ii
'act' the men most interested in the
WIDER use of this grass expect to SEE
me seed sold for a very moderate
price after this season, merely be
'@use the supply will be ample.
NO lucky accident produced SudaI
e'@Ss' 1t came to the American dry
Mnd farmer as the result of thu
slrewdest sort of deductive detect
"e work, for your agricultural de
partment scientists are, when on
ee's down to hard facts, Just plant
me detectives. They get their clue
~ the acts of plants, and they rul
en down just as detectors of Grim
run down their quarry.
sudan grass was developet
through the labors of a man with
"''entiiic theory patiently following
various botanical clues. Strange
enough, 1t proved to be entirel
e~' both to botanists and t.
agronomists.
froiessor Piper holds to the belle
'uat grass exists somewhere t.
meet every need of man. Hence b
mas given his life to hunting then
'ul In this and othar countries RI