The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-09-14
j. A. TONER


Aberdeen Editor Discusses Seed Pos.
sibilities of Aberdeen Country
and Sees Great Future i'm Store
Dry Farming and Beet Raising are
Successful. .....
J. A. Toner, the editor of The Alb.
erdeen Times, has been studying
conditions in the. Aberdeen country
and publishing his observations all
the time, and when asked for 9
statement as to his convictions about
the agricultural resources and the
way to make the most of them, he
said:
1.-THE outstanding fact about agri.
culture here is that this is a seed
country. 1t is other things too, and
it is better in those things than
many other places are, but over and
above that it has the soil and eli
mate and sunshine and the dry all
environment to enable plants to pro.
duce heavy crops of seed the most
perfect that can be grown in Ameri-
ca, and when | say that | have said
a great deal and it is true. There
may be other localities just as good
and | suppose there are, but il
there are places that are better they
have not yet brought forth their
superior products.
Thanks to the pluck and energy
of such men as A. J. Snyder, E. NJ
WALLS ond II Wilou nf Snrin o..
field; and G. A. Line, ID. A. Villa
muth, Ralph Davis and others, OF
Sterling; and l.. c. Aicher, John
Toevs, of Aberdeen; the pure seed
products of this section of the Snake
river valley have been placed on ex-
hibit at the pure seed shows till
recognition has been won for us, and
their seeds from our country stand
on the roll of honor in such a posi-
ton that seed buyers from both east
and west are looking to Springfield
and Sterling and Aberdeen for seed
of high quality, and when the gov
eminent at Washington places its
seal of approval on a mans seed
crop by buying it all after having
it tested, it is no slight compliment
to the man and to the locality that
produced it. Many men are alive to
the advantages of raising seeds of
various kinds, alfalfa, peas, sweet
clover, white clover etc., and returns
of from $50 to $500 an acre have
been secured. 500 an acre is low
for alfalfa seed, and $50 net is a
safe amount to expect.
MANY people hesitate about going
into the seed business because, they
say, the matter may be overdone
and the price brought down like the
price of potatoes when the market
is glutted. | wish men would do
more thinking on actual conditions;
/ wish they would take into consid-
Grafton the fact that the world is
very large, and that these seeds, and
pure seeds are in greater demand
than they have ever been before in
the history of the world; then this
war coming on has drawn peoples
energies into such varied channels
that seeds become the Inerest Incl
dent in farming, and those needing
seeds will buy them and buy the
best with little hesitation about the
price. There never was time when
pure seed was SO much appreciated,
and the wide-awake farmer II shown
moderately good alfalfa seed at 20
cents a pound knows that first cost
as represented in seed is small
matter compared with the sacrifice
in an uneven stand, the presence
of weeds and vines that strangle the
consequent necessity of blowing up
the meadow to get rid of the pests
Think of it! A whole season sac
rificed, along with great amount
of work, to get alfalfa started, and
then find that by saving SO per acre
in seed cost, one sacrifices two tons
or three tons per acre per year when
hay is worth the minimum price OF
S. per ton, and the price Is several
times that much now.
THE intelligent, progressive farm
ers of the country who buy alfalfa
seed realize these things. and it is
our own farmers here in the seed
bit that fail to comprehend them
and stand back, afraid the price will
20 down in period when the world
is running to specialties as it never
did before, and when pure seed Is
going to be at premium as a re-
suit of specialties in farming.
1--WE have found that we can raise
pure seeds, and we have found that
the most of the farming country OF
the world cannot raise it with any
degree of certainty because it does
not do we'll in the low attitudes Of
humid regions where the nights are
warm and the weevil flourishes. The
price cannot rise and fall as does
the price of potatoes, because it is
not perishable commodity requir-
ing to be used the same year like
potatoes. Seeds properly stored will
last indefinitely and be good, and
the Aberdeen farmers who have
tried long and hard to raise pota-
toes, the most uncertain and the
most perishable of all our local
crops, should not now be so particu-
lar and try to find crop that is
absolutely imperishable and always
high, and then be afraid Of 1t when
fhov And n Thosa who want an