VOL. LXXIII. No. 4276. NEW YORK, OCTOBER 10, 1914. WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR. 
HARDY STRAINS OF ALFALFA. 
What Siberia Has Given Us. 
E xperience in south Dakota.—a great 
deal has been written about the Grimm and Si¬ 
berian Alfalfas. Not only the farm papers, but 
the great magazines have had many articles concern¬ 
ing these, most of them being highly optimistic as to 
the future of these new varieties. I confess that I 
have always 
been more or 
less skeptical 
about the prac¬ 
tical end of the 
matter, and 
scarcely took 
the writers of 
these articles 
seriously. It 
had been dem¬ 
onstrated, not 
only to me but 
to thousands of 
other farmers, 
t h a t Kansas, 
Nebraska a n d 
Colorado Alfal¬ 
fa did reason¬ 
ably well all 
over the corn 
belt, seldom 
Winter - killing 
at all and pro¬ 
ducing luxuri¬ 
ant crops. Be¬ 
sides that, Pro¬ 
fessor Hansen 
himself did not 
know how the 
new varieties 
would do in the 
corn belt, and 
I knew that 
the new impor¬ 
tations w ere 
scarce enough, 
so that prices 
would he de¬ 
cidedly high. 
A short time 
ago I deter¬ 
mined to find 
out more about 
these new 
strains, and 
cons equently 
visited South 
Dakota, where 
some of the 
largest 
a m ounts of 
Grimm Alfalfa 
are produced, 
and where, at THE 
present, prac¬ 
tically all of the Siberian Alfalfas are being 
grown. I talked very carefully with the largest 
growers, examined fields of Grimm and smaller 
amounts of the Siberian Alfalfas, and made a careful 
attempt to decide the importance of all of these new 
Alfalfas. I believe the entire subject to be of in¬ 
terest to farmers throughout the corn belt, and I will 
give my conclusions in this article. 
THE GRIMM ALFALFA.—First as to Grimm. 
Most farmers already know that this variety was in¬ 
troduced into America 20 or 25 years ago. and taken 
into Minnesota, where the ordinary Alfalfa was in¬ 
clined to Winter-kill. It throve there, never Winter- 
killed, and produced just as luxuriant crops as any 
other strain. For some reason the grower made no 
particular effort to increase the supply, and until 
four or five years ago nobody to speak of was grow¬ 
ing Grimm, simply because there was very little seed 
being produced. About that time, however, the 
FOUNDATION FOR A BUSINESS HERD. Fig. 
Northwest was being settled quite rapidly. Men in 
this territory were growing more and more Alfalfa, 
and were having some trouble with Winter-killing. 
Many of them turned their attention to Grimm as a 
way out of their own difficulties, and also as a 
profitable crop to grow for seed: consequently, good- 
sized fields began to he seeded with this stock. The 
supply of seed has increased; prices on the pure 
Grimm have dropped from $1 per pound to about 
half that price, and instead of there being only a 
few hundred pounds available, there are this year, 
possibly a few carloads. Furthermore, this stock is 
constantly being increased, and it will be only a 
few years before the seed will retail at 25 or 30 
cents per pound. At present prices, I advise farmers 
to sow moderate amounts of Grimm, especially 
where they have any trouble with Winter-killing; 
with lifting out of the ground by frost in the Win¬ 
ter. or with hardpan and see what the results are. 
ITS HARDY 
NATURE—As 
soon as seed 
drops to 25 or 
30 cents per 
pound, I advise 
fanners almost 
universally, to 
substitute 
Grimm in a 
large degree 
for the com¬ 
mon Alfalfas. 
The reason for 
this is that 
this strain of 
Alfalfa is so 
hardy that the 
-most bitter cold 
seems not to 
affect it in the 
least. Its 
crowns are 
four inches un-. 
der grou n d, 
branch!ng 
beautifully and 
sending up al¬ 
most countless 
stalks from 
each crown. Its 
roots fork a . 
good deal more 
than the com¬ 
mon Alfalfas, 
and this will 
prevent its 
heaving out. at 
least, it will 
make it much 
less likely to 
heave. Also, it 
enables this 
strain to grow 
over hardpan 
or on ground 
not as thor¬ 
oughly drained 
as ordinary Al¬ 
falfa will re¬ 
quire. In yield 
and quality of 
hay, I see no 
difference be- 
522. tween the 
Grimm and the 
ordinary Alfalfa, although I am not sure that 
comparative tests have ever been made, and if 
there were any difference, I would think the Grimm 
would exceed the ordinary on account of the great 
number of shoots which it sends up from each crown. 
While I recommend farmers to grow this Alfalfa, I 
think it wise to say that there Is a possibility that 
several times as much so-called Grimm will he sold 
in the next few years as is actually produced, and I 
would he reasonable careful about the source of 
