The Fallon standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1920-1958, 1922-07-19
Organize Alfalfa
Marketing Ass n
Meeting of Alfalfa Growers at Fern
ley Sunday, Results in
Definite Plans
FALLON ASSOCIATION TO
HOLD MEETING JULY 10Th
No Weeyil Quarantine Anticipated
For Churchill County
This Year

ketlng association among the alfalfa
producers of western Nevada.
Meetings viii be held in the various
producing areas including Loveloek,
Fallon, Fernley, Mason Valley,
Smith Valley, Carson Valley and
Truckee Valley on Saturday, July
29th. when local organizations will
be perfected and boards of directors
elected. 1t was suggested by c. A.
Norcross, state marketing specialist,
that the board for each organiza-
tion appoint three delegates to at
tend a conference at Reno the fol
lowing Saturday, August 9th, where
a minimum price for hay will be
agreed upon. This plan met with
the entire approval of the represen-
tatiYes present and preparations are
being made by the local organiZa-
tions to carry it through.
The cooperative marketing move
ment received impetus from infor-
nation furnished by IL. w. Otis, a
California alfalfa grower who is al
so general manager of the alfalfa
growers exchange of California
Mr.. Otis pointed out that in the past
the alfalfa growers activities had
been confined almost entirely to pro-
duotion and that figures on the cost
were very indefinite and bore little
relation to the selling price. The
individual producer could do moth
ing but accept the best price offer
ed by the dealers and that price Of
ten represented a net loss to him.
The California association has per
fected a highly efficient selling or
ganlzation that could. as Mr.. Otis
put II. extract the last nickel out
of ton of hay" Any member of
his organization can sell his hay
through the association. getting half
cash at the time of delivery and the
balance in twenty days.
|. II. Kent. in short address.
stated from his view point, the most
important feature in maintaining the
price of alfalfa hay was to set a
price that would not be higher than
stock men could afford to pay, as
the main dependence in disposng OF
the crop of hay would rest upon the
amount of live stock that could be
fed in any community. That ship
ping baled hay into California and
other points should be considered as
subsidiary to the main purpose of
disposing of the hay. as it never had
proved TO be a very profitable bust
ness either to the hay dealer or to
the producer.
Mr. W. c. Pitt, of LoYelock. made
a few remarks urging upon the
farmers present the necessity Of di-
versifed crops. and stated that al
falfa was probably the most unprof-
liable crop that could be raised in
Nevada at the present time. He told
a story of an acre of eantaloupes
that was raised on his ranch in
Lovelock in 1921. stating that af-
ter one-third of the crop had been
taken from the ground during the
hot weather, there remained so
many eantaloupes that they could
not all lie upon the ground when
frost came
Weevil Quarantine Discussed
The spread of alfalfa woevil in
western Nevada and the possibility
of a quarantine prohibiting the ship
ment of hay from Fallon and Fern
ley into California was the subject
of a lengthy discussion Mr. Wilson
of the California quarantine depart
ment who has been making a survey
of the alfalfa producing areas has
not been able to find any infestation
in Churchill county and il is belieY-
ed that this territory will be permit
ted to market hay in California for
at least another year.
Dir. Record Of the Nevada quaran-
tine board gave talk on the wee
vii situation and stated that the
presence of alfalfa weeyil need not
be IA cause for great apprehension
on the part of the producers. He re
lated the experiences that have been
encountered i'm the states of Utah
and Idaho where the weevil infesta-
tion has been established for a good
many years and while it has been
found impossible to entirely eradi-
cate the pest and prevent its spread,
methods of control have been per
fected that prevent any great loss of
production. The adult weevil lays
its larvae on the stem of the plant
early in the spring and it is the lar
vac which feed upon the alfalfa
plant and do the damage. II has
been found that this first generation
of the pest can be almost entirely
destroyed by spraying and not
enough of them left TO reproduce an
other generation the same season to
seriously injure succeeding crops.
The adult weevil that has hibernat-
ed through the winter does not live
long in the spring after laying its
larvae on the young alfalfa plants.
Another and perhaps more desir-
able method of preventing the devel-
opment of the young larvae is to
turn sheep onto the alfalfa to Craze
in the spring until they have eaten
off the infested plants then taking
them out and letting the alfalfa
grow up into hay crop.
1t is agreed by all producers in
this district that the most profitable