Plant Comparison Not Always Reliable 



Some very unfair comparisons and statements have been made 

 regarding the Grimm variety. I have on my desk an illustration 

 showing a row of ten rather small two year old plants of Grimm 

 alfalfa. Below these is shown thirteen immense Cossack plants said 

 to be of the same age. I was told that the ten plants of Grimm 

 in the illustration were taken from a field which had been broad- 

 casted at the rate of 15 pounds of seed an acre and where there 

 were from five to fifteen plants for every square foot of soil. 

 According to information received the large Cossack plants which 

 were said to be of the same age as the Grimm were transplanted in 

 checks about two and a half feet apart each way and cultivated, 

 thus providing from six to I eight square feet of cultivated soil for 

 each plant of the Cossack! No wonder they grew big! Is it 

 fair to compare the size of Grimm alfalfa plants from a thickly 

 seeded field with .transplanted Cossack plants, having six or more 

 square feet of free soil for the use of each plant to'spread out and 

 develop? 



Fig. 53. Are Plants 5 and 6 of a Superior Variety? 



No. All plants in this illustration are of the same variety, same age, 

 and come from the same Kansas grown seed. Why the difference? Plants 

 i, 2, 3 and 4 are three years old and were taken from a field of thick alfalfa 

 which had been broadcasted at the rate of 20 Ibs. of seed an acre. Plants 

 5 and 6 were taken from this same field when one year old and transplanted 

 in checks 3x3 feet. Their increased size has resulted from cultivation and 

 free available space for development. The branched growth of roots always 

 occurs when alfalfa of any variety is transplanted and the main root is cut 

 back. Sometimes comparisons like this are unfairly used to show the su- 

 periority of one variety over another. 



Transplanting Develops Widely Branching Roots 



Transplant Grimm alfalfa and force it along like a garden veg- 

 etable in the same way as those Cossack plants were grown and it 

 will produce these very immense crowns and roots. Even common 

 ordinary alfalfa will grow big sturdy plants if transplanted, culti- 



64 



