134 © 
1913. 
DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF ALFALFA. 
Part I. 
The Alfalfa question has always been 
one of the most important; lately there 
has been a great deal of discussion of 
different strains or varieties, and I be¬ 
lieve there is some doubt and confusion 
concerning this phase of the question. To 
try to clear some of these doubts and 
dissipate this confusion is the purpose 
of this letter. 
To begin with, there is the question of 
dwarf Alfalfa. Much has been written 
us about this dwarf Alfalfa, and many 
questions have been asked us. I find that 
some men who have claimed to have dwarf 
Alfalfa have really planted Turkestan 
seed, believing that they were getting 
something superior to the common or 
American Alfalfa. This Turkestan Al¬ 
falfa was first imported by the Govern¬ 
ment, I believe about 12 years ago. At 
that time we tested it on our own farm. 
I sowed the seed on a corner of a field 
that later, planted with common Alfalfa, 
gave us one of the finest meadows we 
ever owned. This Turkestan seed came 
up all right, we secured a good enough 
stand, the plants seemed healthy enough, 
but they were dwarfish and under-sized, 
giving not more than half the yield of 
the common Alfalfa in our other fields. 
We gave this seed the same treatment, 
the same conditions, and used the same 
methods (which have never failed us 
with the common seed), but the result 
was decidedly not the same, and after 
two or three years, in disgust we plowed 
up the field. 
Of course, when the Government first 
brought the Turkestan Alfalfa into the 
United States, they did it in the hope 
that it would prove to be very valuable; 
in this way the impression was started 
that it was very valuable, but this has 
been proven a fallacy. The Kansas Ex¬ 
periment Station on a four years’ test 
reports a yield of 1,000 pounds per acre 
less with the Turkestan than with the 
ordinary or common. Farmers in gen¬ 
eral have the impression that Turkestan 
is much hardier than the common Alfalfa. 
Now, Turkestan is a big country with 
varying altitude. I am credibly informed 
that seed from the mountain regions of 
Turkestan is quite hardy, and if one were 
sure of getting seed from the high alti¬ 
tudes it might be a good thing (although 
I do not know how it yields in compari- 
son with ordinary Alfalfa) but how is 
one to know this unless he buys seed 
years ahead and tests small samples of 
it until he finds whether or not he has 
a hardy strain). The disadvantages of 
this are self-evident. In some cases men 
who have planted good American seed on 
ground that was not properly prepared 
for it may have obtained a stand of 
stunted plants which they mistake for 
dwarf Alfalfa; this has probably helped 
to foster the delusion that there are two 
kinds of Alfalfa, the large growing and 
the dwarf. 
Grimm Alfalfa has lately been the sub¬ 
ject of much discussion and this is also 
one of the things about which we are 
most frequently consulted. Right here I 
wish to state that I do not want to be 
misunderstood as minimizing the import¬ 
ance and value of Grimm Alfalfa, for 
there is no doubt but that in some places 
it is a good thing. It has been demon¬ 
strated by experiment station records that 
Grimm is one of the hardiest Alfalfas 
that has ever been brought into the 
United States; that its Winter-killing 
percentage is very low even in rigid 
climates. I know that its branching 
root system gives it a great advantage 
on poorly drained soils and soils under¬ 
laid with hardpan. In latitude north 
of 43 deg., Grimm Alfalfa is needed, but 
I contend that it is not needed in the 
corn belt. There is one point that most 
writers on the subject of Grimm Alfalfa 
seem to overlook, and that is that thei'e 
is not enough seed produced annually in 
the United States to supply the farmers 
in one county in Ohio with enough seed 
for a season’s sowing. I cannot but de¬ 
plore the short-sighted policy of not con¬ 
serving the seed, say on a big western 
ranch where a yield of six or eight bush¬ 
els to the acre is the rule rather than the 
exception until there was enough seed 
to allow of reasonably large sowings and 
moderate prices. If this had been done, 
it could be obtained in fair amounts and 
at reasonable prices, but now there- is 
not seed enough to go around, and the 
usual retail price is $1 a pound. In 
'rutrs RURAL NEW-VORKEK 
view of these facts I think it unwise to 
stir up too much enthusiasm over Grimm 
Alfalfa, especially since I do not con¬ 
sider it necessary to have it in order to 
succeed with Alfalfa growing. In the 
extreme North Grimm Alfalfa would be 
of great value, but it is not needed in 
the corn belt; here common Alfalfa does 
reasonably well, and if a hardier strain 
is wanted, acclimatized Montana or Da¬ 
kota seed is next best and comparable to 
Grimm itself. 
Now, a word as to this acclimatized 
Montana or Dakota seed. Scientists in 
the past have not agreed as to the in¬ 
fluence of environment upon plants, some 
claiming that both plants and their off¬ 
spring were affected to a great degree by 
soil and climate conditions, others that 
they were not so affected, and that hardy 
strains would retain their hardiness no 
matter where planted, North or South. 
Of late, however, there is not so much 
disagreement, and scientists seem to be 
approaching neutral ground on this ques¬ 
tion. They will admit, for instance, that 
if seed from Utah could be planted in 
the intensely cold climate of Montana, 
and the seed from the plants that sur¬ 
vived the bitter Winters were gathered 
and saved, it would be slightly better 
than the seed first used, and if this seed 
were sown the resulting stock would be 
still more valuable, until in the course 
of several generations one would have 
seed much superior to the origiual Utah 
stock, the weak and tender strains hav¬ 
ing been eliminated by the “survival of 
the fittest” until the resulting acclima¬ 
tized stock was quite hardy and very vig¬ 
orous. 
There is one regrettable circumstance 
connected with this acclimatized Montana 
seed. The demand for hardy seed and 
for Montana seed in particular has been 
so great that in some places it has been 
impossible to sell anything but Montana 
seed or seed supposed to be Montana 
seed. This demand has been greater 
than the supply, and as a consequence 
thei’e has been seed sold represented to 
be Montana seed that never saw Montana, 
probably 10 times as much as was pro¬ 
duced in that State. How much of the 
genuine Montana seed sold was really 
acclimatized seed it is impossible to tell. 
We want every farmer who reads this 
to grow Alfalfa. There is no need to be 
discouraged because you happened to get 
hold of some dwarf or Turkestan Alfalfa 
seed and got a small yield, or because the 
price and scarcity of the Grimm puts 
this strain out of reach. There is an 
abundance of good, common, hardy Al¬ 
falfa seed to be had in the United States, 
and at a reasonable price. If you want 
something hardier, plant Dakota or 
Montana acclimatized seed, which may be 
procured for a not extravagant price. 
But by all means grow Alfalfa; it is 
not hard to do, and the crop gets more 
profitable every year. We know farmers 
who grow $60.00 worth of hay to the 
acre without trouble, and sometimes 
$80.00 wort! ciias. u. wing. 
Ohio. 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Part II. 
The next topic was tropical horticul¬ 
ture, introduced by a paper read in per¬ 
son by Mr. II. C. Ilenricksen, Horticul¬ 
turist of the British West Indies on “The 
Status of Pomology in the West Indies.” 
He referred to the great variety of the 
native fruits grown there before the ships 
of Columbus had anchored in their 
waters, and of those that had been intro¬ 
duced there since. There had been al¬ 
most nothing of consequence done by the 
Spaniards in Cuba or Porto Rico, but 
after our war with Spain many of the 
fruit growers from the United States 
had gone there and planted fruits of var¬ 
ious kinds in a commercial way. There 
are now many prosperous orchards of 
oranges and pomeloes and the more trop¬ 
ical fruit, such as the mango and avo¬ 
cado are being planted to some extent. 
The growing of pineapples is so well ad¬ 
vanced that large shipments are made to 
the markets in the United States and to 
Europe as well. The same state of things 
prevails in Porto Rico even to a greater 
extent because of the government being 
more stable under the American flag. 
Jamaica and the smaller islands grow 
many kinds of fruits, but to a limited 
degree, and mostly for home use. Cacao 
(the chocolate tree) is grown now with 
success where it was before thought to 
be practically ' impossible because of the 
discovery that wind-breaks were what was 
needed to protect the trees. Vanilla is 
also being grown to a limited degree. 
Altitude has much to do with successful 
tropical fruit growing, as regards the 
season of ripening. Eliminating unprofit¬ 
able trees from the apple orchard was 
the title of a paper that was of a clearly 
practical character by Dr. S. W. Fletcher, 
Director of the Virginia Experiment Sta¬ 
tion. He dealt mostly with his own or¬ 
chard of several thousand trees, having 
kept a record of their behavior. He had 
found that from various causes there was 
about 17 per cent of them that did not 
pay. Woolly aphis was the main cause of 
their unproductivity and this has been 
largely remedied by treatment, tobacco 
having been applied to the soil and spray¬ 
ing the insects during their life on the 
trees. “Drone trees” he thought were 
so almost entirely from unsuitable or un¬ 
fortunate conditions rather than from 
their inherent characters. It was some 
ailment that could often be traced to a 
local cause and not a defective pedigree. 
Possibly one-tenth of one per cent might 
be allowed for cases of constitutional un¬ 
productiveness, and even of these he 
seemed doubtful. The discussion that 
followed gave no positive evidence of the 
correctness of the theory of “pedigreed” 
productivity or the contrary. What each 
tree needs is careful inspection by one 
who “lives with his trees ” and knows 
their individual needs. 
Prof. F. W. Card of Pennsylvania dealt 
with the subject of “Business adjustments 
of the fruit grower to be considered.” 
He laid much stress on proper grading 
and thought the medium grades sell best, 
because they meet the ability of the com¬ 
mon people to buy them. There is more 
fruit that will and must go into them 
than in the high grades. The very low 
grades should be made into some cheap 
product or fed to stock and not thrown 
on the market to injure the sale of the 
rest. The Eastern States have a decided 
advantage over the Western ones in point 
of reaching the markets and they can only 
compete with good success in the higher 
grades. Another point dwelt upon was 
that nearness to good transportation 
should be seriously considered in locat¬ 
ing for the purpose of growing fruits. 
They are heavy and often require quick 
and always safe handling and nothing 
should prevent this. The selection of 
land that is far from local markets or 
good facilities for shipping because it is 
cheap is a mistake, even though it be 
good land for the purpose. No land is 
too good to be planted to fruits and it 
is better to pay a good price for that 
which is desirable in every way than to 
take poor soil or a bad location as a gift. 
Diversified fruit crops were advised in¬ 
stead of making too much of specialties. 
The latter plan may be and is a good 
one sometimes and under certain favor¬ 
able conditions but on the average it is 
not. The grower who has a diversity of 
fruit as to season and kinds is safer in 
his returns than the specialist and has 
almost no bad failures. 
The recently enacted national law 
called the “Sulzer Bill,” for the regula¬ 
tion of the grading, packing and brand¬ 
ing of fruit packages and their standard¬ 
ization came up for discussion by the 
Eastern Fruit Growers’ Association. The 
discussion was opened by Mr. Samuel B. 
M oods of Virginia who seriously ob¬ 
jected to several of its provisions. He 
thought that the law gave the commission 
men the chance to condemn the fruit sent 
to market instead of having it inspected 
by competent and disinterested officials. 
Another fault mentioned was, that 10 
per cent of faulty fruit is allowed in 
packages to be counted as perfect, which 
really gave a false impression on the 
market and nullified the whole scheme of 
grading. He thought that a package 
marked perfect should be perfect. Still 
another fault is that the law makes it 
imperative to prove that a certain party 
packed a certain barrel, for instance, and 
in case of inability to do this there would 
be no penalty to follow. Mr. Woods 
thought the evidence of the fraudulent 
package should be sufficient to cause its 
seizure in whatever place or in anyone’s 
possession it is found and the penalty im¬ 
posed. All these points were hotly con¬ 
tested by Mr. Alex Ciohan of West Vir¬ 
ginia and others. They claimed that 
while the law is not perfect it is a step 
in advance, especially in the matter of 
establishing uniformity of packages for 
fruit and vegetables. They also thought 
that as all graders and packers are liable 
to make some mistakes and to overlook 
some faulty specimens it would not be 
fair to condemn all that inside the barrel 
or box. H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
When you write advertisers mention 
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very lucidly arranged, and will be as 
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Freely illustrated and well indexed; 541 
pages; published by the Orange Judd 
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Fish Culture, in Ponds and Other 
Inland Waters, by Win. E. Meehan, late 
Pennsylvania Fish Commissioner and 
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