tana grew 5,000 pounds for which he received $3,000. He wrote that he 
would not have received over $600 had he grown common alfalfa. You can 
see that it paid him to seed “Lyman’s Grimm.” 
WARNING AGAINST SPURIOUS GRIMM ALFALFA SEED. 
Recent investigations by the Department of Agriculture have revealed 
the fact that large quantities of ordinary alfalfa seed are being offered for 
sale under the name of Grimm. 
In the cases of some of this seed it was found that it was not even 
domestic seed, but was wholly or in part imported Turkestan seed. This 
practice of selling other seed for Grimm results in the farmer paying from 
40 cents to $1 or more per pound for seed which would otherwise sell for 
from 12 to 20 cents a pound, and inasmuch as the ordinary seed is not as 
hardy as Grimm, the first severe winter may kill the entire crop. 
The original Grimm alfalfa sown in 1858 in Carver County, Minnesota, 
has undergone a natural cross with the common variety which, together 
with its exposure to numerous severe winters which have eliminated the 
weaker plants, has made it one of the hardiest of our commercial strains. 
The seed was produced originally entirely in Minnesota, but tests of the 
true variety since grown in Dakota, Montana and Idaho indicate that these 
lots are all of equal value and are quite as hardy as those grown in Minne- 
sota. 
As it is difficult to detect substitutes for Grimm in the seed, the farmers 
are urged to buy Grimm only from reliable dealers and, as far as possible, 
to trace the seed back to its source. In many cases the retailers are not 
deliberately perpetrating a fraud, as they have purchased this seed for 
Grimm and sell it in the belief that it is Grimm. 
This seed has become very popular in regions of cold winters and is 
now used not only in the Northwest but in the East, particularly in northern 
New York and New England. — Weekly News Letter to Crop Correspond- 
ents, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington. D. C., Novem- 
ber 5, 1913. 
M . \. 1 ! Milford, III., Feb. Stli, 1«16. 
Excelsior, Minn. 
Dear Sir: — 
I think every one in this vicinity knows that only Grimm alfalfa will survive 
(lie winters in this soil and climate. 
Enough other alfalfa has been tried and it is now generally known that western 
alfalfa will not succeed permanently here. 
I cannot understand why people are so apathetic in regard to alfalfa. The worst 
drawback we find is that it produces so many crops that it is always on hand, like 
a sore thumb. It has no regard at all for a farmer’s convenience when it needs cut 
ting, it just has to be cut. 
I have used perhaps 200 pounds of your seed and have always got a stand. It 
lias never winterkilled. 
Respectfully yours, 
DR. O. O. HALI,. 
