LYMAN’S GRIMM ALFALFA. 
How I Discovered the Grimm Alfalfa 
In 1890, while teaching school some ten miles west of home in Carver 
County, I found the farmers growing alfalfa, or “Hwiger Klee” (everlasting 
clover) they called it. I took a sample of the hay home and showed its super- 
iority over red clover. The following spring my father purchased thirty 
pounds of alfalfa seed in Minneapolis and seeded two acres in barley and had 
a good stand. The next summer this cut three heavy crops of hay and there 
was quite another crop that we did not cut or pasture. In the spring we 
found the alfalfa all dead. This was a great disappointment and we were at 
a loss to know why it had winterkilled. 
Later I found that the Germans still had a perfect stand, and upon a care- 
ful inquiry found that they had suffered no loss whatever. I remember ask- 
ing one of the Germans in regard to his alfalfa and he replied, “I cut him three 
times,” and when I told him of ours killing, he said, “I lose me no one plant.” 
About that time an article appeared in the Farmers Tribune telling of 
the great feeding value of alfalfa, but it said that alfalfa could not be grown in 
Minnesota, except in Carver County, and attributed our success to soil con- 
ditions. I read between the lines and formed the opinion that these Germans 
had a hardy variety. Upon investigation I found that the successful growers 
were getting their seed from a man named Grimm, while those who planted 
other seed were not successful. I told many persons of my discovery, but 
they thought little of it, not realizing the value of alfalfa. 
In 1900 I was able to interest Prof. W. M. Hayes of our Experiment Sta- 
tion to the extent that during the following July, accompanied by Prof. An- 
drew Boss, he drove out to our place to investigate. They not only e.xamined 
our fields but the fields of the German farmers in different parts of the county. 
The farmers were questioned as to where they had received their seed, and 
after a most careful investigation had been made, Professor Hayes turned to 
Professor Boss and said, “This marks the beginning of alfalfa in Minnesota.” 
In March, 1903, he wrote Press Bulletin No. 20, in which he named this alfalfa 
Grimm, in honor of the old German who had developed it. Mr. Grimm had 
begun with 20 pounds of seed he had brought from Germany in 1857. For 
years he suffered loss by winterkilling, but he was persistent and w'ould not 
give up. He patiently saved seed from the plants that survived. By so doing 
he built up a hardy alfalfa. As early as 1904 the Department at Washington 
became interested in this hardy alfalfa. From Page 25 of the Annual Report 
of B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, we copy the follow- 
ing; “Grimm Alfalfa — Experiments thus far conducted indicate that this is 
the hardiest variety of Medicago Sativa of which we have knowledge. 
