Sunnyside’s Eight-Ton Alfalfa Boast, Put to the Test

Some time since, in conversation with O. A. Fechter of North Yakima, whose judgment as to land and property values in the valley we regard very highly, he expressed himself as having some doubts that the Sunnyside country was producing the large yields of alfalfa that were claimed for it. He said that his own experience and observation in handling alfalfa lands in the valley would lead him to believe that this class of lands about Sunnyside were not producing the crops that were claimed for them.

In the past few days I had an interview with Mr. Arthur Stewart, who is visiting his brother-in-law, J. R. Whitney, of this place, and who is now investigating the claims of this country for lands as an investment of capital, and he expresses himself the same as Mr. Fechter.

We have always contended that seven tons of hay per acre was a very conservative estimate for the average yield of alfalfa at this place. Fearing that the gentlemen named above might be correct in their conclusions, I have interviewed a number of the leading alfalfa producers of this district. The questions asked were: “How many years have you been producing alfalfa?” “From your own experience and observations, what do you regard as the average product of the alfalfa fields that you have harvested or seen harvested, one year with another, since you would base your judgment on actual measurements of the meadow and weight or measurement of hay?”

Name — Years experience and observation — No. tons per acre. W. H. Hendricks — 7 — 9 E. M. Douglas — 7 — 9 Jas. Henderson — 7 — 8½ Will Stobie — 7 — 8 A. A. Hawkins — 7 — 8 S. H. Miller — 3 — 7 B. E. Ferson — 8 — 8¼ Webber Bros. — 8 — 7¾ D. B. Eby — 3 — 7 L. Pace — 8 — 8½ W. H. Cline — 8 — 8.23 John Chisholm — 7 — 8¼ Fred Allen — 7 — 8¼

Making an average of a little over 8 tons per acre.

John Chisholm, Fred Allen and W. H. Cline are among our heaviest producers of alfalfa. They have always sold their hay to feeders and are therefore in position to give figures as to what their meadows have yielded them. Mr. Chisholm now has a meadow aggregating 75 acres, some of this late seeding. He is willing to be quoted as stating that his meadows have returned him 8¼ tons per acre. Fred Allen has about 30 acres of producing meadow and his report is the same as Mr. Chisholm’s. The three gentlemen named above were among the first to plant alfalfa at Sunnyside, and are in the best position to give figures as to what meadows will do, one year with another, for the longest period known in Sunnyside. New meadows do not yield as well as old ones, and for this reason I think those who have been here a shorter number of years are not able to report as high as those of longer years of experience.

W. H. Cline says: “While I have been harvesting alfalfa for six or eight years I have kept an exact record only the past three years. I now have 141 acres in alfalfa. The past three years my alfalfa meadows have averaged me 8.23 tons to the acre. The two years prior the hay was measured on the first of November, and the last year it was measured as led and sold by weight. The hay weighed out 200 pounds more per ton than it measured. Probably if the hay were all measured November 1st it would have been equivalent to same by weight as by measure.”—B. M. Lichty, in the Sunnyside Sun.