The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1925-02-19
BY M. A. NYE
Blue Valley Farm Service

est growers Oh alIdlld III Tie SIdIe VI
Wisconsin. Last year they sold 800
tons of hay at $50 a ton to local
farmers and 100 bushels of alfalfa
seed to dealer at $25 bushel.
The Swartz Brothers procured the
Gold Medal Exhibit at the San Fran
cisco Exhibition. Peter Swartz in
telling of his experience with alfalfa
recalls an 4 incident that happened
when he was boy-a bunch he had
that they could make money grow
ing alfalfa. Mr.. Swartz tells that
years ago his father planted few
acres of alfalfa. When their herd
of milk cows was fed alfalfa month
for the first time, he remembers that
their milk check was the biggest one
they had ever received up to that
time. His job was hauling the milk
and when he saw the big check he de-
manded a new suit and new pair OF
shoes. He got the shoes and his faith
err promised him the suit the follow
ing month. But the supply of alfalfa
hay ran out before the month was
half over and the milk check was not
sufficient to buy suit. This incl
dent happened IA years ago. At that
time the Swartz family decided their
16O acre farm would not produce
enough hay and grain for the milking
herd. They were buying commercial
feed at that time and they found it
took Just about every cent they re-
ceived for milk to pay the feed bill,
Alfalfa had proved to be such g
profitable crop they decided to spec
ialize in growing it in order to pro
duce hay to sell to neighboril.g dairy
farmers. Their neighbors laughed at
them and said they would go broke"
in a short time. Their neighbors
pointed out that alfalfa was a new
crop in the locality and, even if the
hay did possess the merits claimed
for it, it would take years to make it
popular. Year by year the Swartz
family increased their fields until
they are the largest growers of this
profitable legume in the state of Wis
,consin.
When the Swartz' decided to spec
.ialize on alfalfa, Peter Swartz went
to Merchandising, Ohio, to call on the
late "Joe" Wing. He had heard this
famous pioneer alfalfa grower talk
many times and he went to him for
advice. Several years later the
Swartz' planted their first big field
with alfalfa seed. They waited anx-
ziously fer the crop. Mr.. Swartz said
they would still be waiting if they
had not asked college men about the
crop when it failed to show up in
time. The college men told them that
they has used common alfalfa seed
and that it had winter killed. They
recommended Grimm seed. This
seed was planted. 1t grew we'll, but
the failure of the first planting was
still fresh in Mr.. Swartz' mind so he
decided to see if there was any other
variety that would do better than
Grimm seed. In 1915 he put out, in
two-rod plots, nearly 200 samples of
different seed he had obtained from
many states and foreign countries.
In order to test each kind of seed he
experimental with seed from Russia,
Mexico, France, Japan and South
America countries. The results
showed Grimm and few others to be
the best for Wisconsin climate. He
decided on Grimm because it was an
American seed and easy to get.
When it came to sell the Alfalfa
crop he advertised it in the local
newspapers, emphasizing that it was
better than timothy and offered to
back up this assertion by selling it
on satisfaction-or- back basis.
He sold his crop. The guarantee
turned the trick. Year after year
the acreage of alfalfa was increased.
In planting the low parts of the farm
he ran up against production prob
lem. He found that the soil was sour.
He learned that lime could always be
used to good advantage in handling
sour soil. He applied agricultural
limestone, buying it by the carload
and found that it stimulated the al
falfa crop until it was as good on
what had been sour land as on the |
other parts of the farm.
After the Swartz' had gotten well |
into alfalfa production, June grass !
began to show up in the oldest fields
and the bare spots cut down the
yields. To combat the grass Mr..
Swartz tried the then new wrinkle
of making fewer cuts and leaving a
good last crop for winter covering.
For five years he experimental with
two fields. He discovered that the
field which was cut twice not only
produced more hay than the one cut
three times, but that it was also in
better condition to fight June grass
and thus prolong its life. When
neighbors noticed what he was doing
and asked why he was leaving such a
good crop of hay on the last cutting
he merely answered he was tired
of haying. But. the truth of the mat
ter was he didn't want to let out this
secret.
BY that time many farmers in the
locality were growing alfalfa and the
Swartz' were afraid that if produc-
ton continued to grow it would hurt
their market for hay. Looking back
Mr.. Swartz smiles when he thinks
how narrow his viewpoint was-and
admits it. He said in a recent inter
view, 81 doubt if production will
ever catch up with demand in this
state. Why, with almost every farm
er growing alfalfa in this section our
800 tons of alfalfa hay aIyear is only |
q drop in the bucket. Just think, last
year our county farm bureau brought
in over so carloads"
The secret of cleaning out June
grass in alfalfa came out when one of
n L e