12 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



at Junction City, Kan., and he hauled it to Marion on a wagon. He 

 planted ninety pounds of seed and sold ten pounds to the lately deceased 

 Charles Molahan, also of Marion. Mr. Molahan had wonderful success 

 with his planting, and it was from the Molahan planting that Mr. 

 Blackshere, of Chase county, got his idea to plant." 



* * * 



"In the spring of 1869 Mr. D. B. Long, who located in Ellsworth 

 county, section 12, township 16, range 8, sent to San Jose, Cal., for 

 alfalfa seed, which he planted that spring. He got a moderate stand, 

 and the plants grew large and coarse. Not knowing that alfalfa re- 

 quires frequent cutting, he permitted it to go to seed. The seed was 

 threshed, but as Mr. Long did not realize its value it came to nothing. 

 Because the gophers worked in the field Mr. Long plowed it up." 



* * * 



"What is believed to have been the first alfalfa in Atchison county 

 was grown by Jasper Olophant, on the farm now occupied by his son, 

 William E. Olophant, in the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter 

 of section 24, township 7, range 21, near Oak Mills, in Walnut township. 

 It was sown more than forty years ago. Mr. Olophant did not raise 

 alfalfa on an extensive scale, but he planted it as an experiment and 

 successfully grew a small patch. He was the first man to demonstrate 

 that our [Atchison county] soil is adapted to this valuable forage crop." 



* * * 



This item appeared under date of January 20, 1909, which would in- 

 dicate that Mr. Olophant made his sowing in 1869. 



FIG. 1. One of the earlier plantings of alfalfa in Norton county, the field of J. A. 

 ; Gishwiller, of Almena. Planted in 1876; photographed in 1907. 



The alfalfa report of the State Board of Agriculture issued in 1894 

 contained reports from growers all over the state. In that report James 

 Herbin, of Jamestown, Cloud county, said: "I have had twenty-four 

 years' experience in growing alfalfa. . . . Alfalfa attains its best 

 yield from the third year on, until the tenth or twelfth; but it will con- 

 tinue to grow for twenty-five years or more." This would indicate that 

 Mr. Herbin grew alfalfa as early as 1870. Three others J. P. Hall, 

 Medicine Lodge, Barber county; J. R. Blackshere, Elmdale, Chase county, 

 and Gust. Anderson, Lindsborg, McPherson county report having had 

 twenty years' experience with alfalfa, which would make their sowings 

 to have been as early as 1875. 



