The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1924-10-23
ALFALFACLUB TOUR
VERY SUCCESSFUL
FARMERS HAVE DEMONSTRAT
ED THIS FOOD CAN BE
CROWN HERE
MANY TALKS BY EXPERT
EVERY INDICATION THAT ACRE.
AGE WILL BE INCREASED
NEXT YEAR

The Sank Centre Alfalfa Club
Field tour, conducted Tuesday Octob.
er 21st, furnished a very interesting
and instructive day for Sank Centre
Alfalfa growers. The weather was
ideal for the tour.
Promptly at $3.50 A. M, members
of the Club and a number of inter-
ested citizens left the Palmer House
corner enroute to the R. G.. Penrose
farm which was the first stop made
on the trip. Mr.. Penrose has two
acres of alfalfa which he seeded late
this spring without nurse crop. He
has good stand and the plants were
all inoculated. Specimens were dug
up and incubation nodules were
found on the roots and discussed by
R. F. Grim, Alfalfa Extension Spec
ialist from the University of Mime
sofa, whose services had been OBJ
tanned for the tour of inspection.
On Mr.. Krueger's farm old and
new seedlings were inspected. The
work of pocket gophers was discov-
cred on the older seeding and the
poison bait method of destroying
them was advised by Mr.. Grim.
Soil testing by the rich and poor
test was demonstrated and farmers
who have light sandy soil and who are
planning to sow alfalfa or sweet
clover were urged to first have their
soil tested and find out it acidity.
Upon leaving the Kruger farm the
party was strengthened by three
more cars loaded to capacity.
On the Joe Osendorf farm which
was the next stop on the tour four
fields were exhibited, these platings
were from Ia years to last springs
seedlings. The fourteen and eight
year old fields drew considerable, at
tention on account of age and hardi-.
ness of the plants. 49,
The Osendorf farm consists of
240 acres, and of that amount total
of so acres is devoted to Alfalfa, and
from which they have harvested
slightly better than four tons per
acre this year. 49, n,
While at Osendorf farm Mr.. Grim,
who is probably the best posted man
on alfalfa and sweet clover in Min
nesota, gave shot but interesting
talk on the cost of production and
food value of alfalfa, and offered in
evidence pictures, charts and figures
from actual experiments.
Records kept on Alfalfa plots
sown at the University Farm in 1913
show an average total dry matter
yield of 50929 lbs for inoculated
plots as against 872 pounds total dry
matter for uninoculated plots. The
total nitrogen added to the soil of
inoculated plots is 1878 pounds and
of the uninoculated 1886 pounds.
incubation adds the equivalent Of
1875 tons of manure while without
the incubation the equivalent of on
ly 1.48 tons is added. "With such a
small cost and trouble, all alfalfa and
sweet clover should be inoculated,"
says. Mr.. Grim.
Mr.. Grim also stated that alfalfa
is very rich in lime, which is needed
so much by producing and growing
animals. Alfalfa is superior to grain
because it's lime content.
at Window and Owatonna, tame hay
age yields of alfalfa were &c tons
per acre and of tame hay LAB tons.
The cost per ton of alfalfa was $7.79
and of the tame hay $9.49. The av-
erage value per acre of alfalfe was
$42.21 and of the tame hay only
$17.16. The average per cent re-
turn on $3.50 land for alfalfa was
20.7% and of the tame hay 1853
per cent. These were striking figures
showing the economic superiority of
alfalfa over tame hay.
After having lunch in Sank Cen
tire the tour was resumed, but a
number who had participated in the
forenoon were forced for reasons to
abondon the afternoon trip, but in
most cases large numbers were wait
ing at the different farms when the
alfalfa party arrived.
The Club during the afternoon
visited the alfalfa fields on the Win
field Ceynar, R. B. Kinsella, Bern
ard Walters and VIM. Austin farms.
Exceptionally fine stands were found
at the Ceynar and Kinsella farms. !
The Importance of compact seed
bed was stressed by Mr.. Grim and
he urged growers to cultivate grassy
alfalfa fields with spring tooth har-
row. One point brought out was the
fact that alfalfa if properly handled
would most surely kill out Canada
thistles, and would materially handi-
cap the growth of quack grass.
AT the closing Of the tour Mr..
Grim again made the statement that
he could see no reason why the farm
ers of this territory could not develop
a large industry here by raising al
falfa seed for the northwest; "at
any rate enough should be raised Tor
feeding if nothing more" ne said.
H. S. Sandholt Of Chicago, adyer-
Using manager for the Blue Valley
Creamery Co., arrived in the city
Wednesday for a conference with
Local Manager l. p. Krebs and the