The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-05-20
genuine ALFALFA
SEED THE BEST
An Authority on Subject Gives Some
Valuable Pointers to Montana
Farmers.

In a paper read at the ninth annual
meeting of the Montana Seed Growers
Association, Mr.. GRADER IAN authority
on Alfalfa, makes the following state
ments of value to every Montana far
mer:
To those of US here in the middle
western and eastern states where eli
matte conditions are such that we can
not, as a rule grow alfalfa seed sue
cessfully it is somewhat of a mystery
as to just why the hardy winter re-
sistant varities of alfalfa such as the
Grimm, Baltic and Cossack, are not
more widely grown out west for seed
purposes than now obtains.
Grimm alfalfa seed, the most widely
grown and commercially important
variety of the three mentioned, sells
at from so to 100 percent above COM
mon native Montana seed. 1t is no
harder to grow, it yields as well and
following hard winters it yields better
than your native alfalfa and it lasts
longer. There may be some who will
question this assertion.
Is Common Native Montana Seed
Good Enough?
| have had western growers tell me
this: "Our common native alfalfa is
hardy. We do not need Grimm. Why
we have fields here in Montana all
the way from 10 to So years old still
standing in excellent shape. What
further proof do you want for a hardy
alfalfa? Furthermore, we have real
winters out here-the kind that make
you long for the sunny SOUTH"
IN fho f,a, re - 4L,c 1noI-. 1,I.n .,
very formidable argument and one
that appealed to us four or five years
ago but since then has lost it's appeal.
We have tried out eXperimentally al
falfa seed from several old fields in
Montana and South Dakota-seed that
was represented to us as being very
hardy by virtue of the age of the fields
from whence it came-only to find
that when one of our real hard killing
Wisconsin winters came along-these
sold field" alfalfa plots winter-killed
the most part the same as adjacent
plots which had been seeded with or
native alfalfa from the very
state. Yes, and the Grimm var
iety in these very tests came through
flying colors.
AS sOOn as the western seed grow
ers come to realize that with our abun-
dant autumn rainfall and with our al
freezing and thawing winter
is a much
more serious problem in Wisconsin
than obtains out west, they will grow
Grimm or other hardy varities of al
seed. The fact that our Wiscon-
sin alfalfa acreage is cut down every
years from 25 to so per cent by
hard winters should be sufficient proof
that the native western seed we have
oeen using Including that from Mon
is not hardy enough to answer
all our requirements. Fields seeded
common Montana grown alfalfa
hat last ten years in Wisconsin are
very rare and hard to find but not so
Montana. Our farmers generally
prefer to leave their fields stand as
.ong as they produce we'll but that is
very long if hard winters make
their appearance. | am mentioning
these matters to emphasize that while
under certain western conditions
Grimm may not be greatly superior
to the ommon native alfalfa, it is
much harder and more permanent and
yields more in the states east of Mon
Jana, otherwise there would be no OBJ
iect in farmers paying a premium
or Grimm seed.